Senior and mobility scooping

Bending repeatedly, twisting while carrying something, and walking uneven ground with your attention on the ground rather than your footing are three of the most common ways an older person falls in their own garden.

A fall in the back yard is not a minor event. It is a hip, and a hip at that age is frequently the beginning of a much larger decline. Weighed against that, the cost of having someone else do it weekly is not really a lifestyle expense.

We knock. Somebody appearing at the side gate without warning is genuinely frightening if you were not expecting anyone, and being frightened in your own home is worse than a dirty lawn.

We put back anything we move. We do not rearrange, tidy, or comment on the state of anything that is not our job. Access notes are written in full sentences rather than shorthand, so they can be read aloud over the phone to a family member who is arranging this from another city and wants to know exactly what was agreed.

• A knock, not an unannounced side-gate entry
• Nothing moved is left moved
• No commentary on anything outside the job
• Notes written to be read aloud over the phone

The visit itself runs the same grid as any other yard, but everything around it is slower and more explicit. We knock rather than appearing at the side gate unannounced, because a stranger materializing in the back yard is genuinely alarming if you were not expecting anyone today. Gates get left exactly as they were found. Anything moved gets put back. Access notes are written in plain sentences rather than shorthand, so they can be read aloud over the phone to a family member who is arranging this from another city.

• We knock rather than going straight to the side gate
• Access notes written in plain language, not shorthand
• Anything moved is put back where it was
• Photo of the cleaned area every visit Read the full standard: Photo of the cleaned area every visit›