Prevent Nursing Home Theft

You try not to think about your loved ones valuables and belongings being at risk for theft while they are residing in an assisted living facility. The harsh reality is that theft is a common occurrence at nursing homes and assisted care facilities. With staff and visitors frequently coming and going and having access to resident's rooms, it is easy to understand how theft can occur. But how can we prevent theft? Purchasing a safe for your loved one can give you the comfort of knowing that their valuables will be safe and secure.

What kind of safe should you look for? There are a few options available that would be beneficial in an assisted living situation. Biometric safes, or fingerprint safes, offer the advantage that there is no code that the resident will have to remember. Biometric safes also allow greater security because only the resident will be able to access the safe, limiting staff issues with theft. The main disadvantage of biometric safes is that these types of safes sometimes have difficulty reading the fingerprints of the elderly, but all biometric safes come with a key override to avoid being locked out of your safe.

Electronic keypad safes would also be advantageous in a nursing home situation. Electronic keypad safes offer simple access and since you use a code, there is no key to lose, although most come with key override as well. The disadvantages to using electronic keypad safes would be that the resident might not be able to remember the code or have the physical ability to actually push the buttons on the safe. Staff could also see the code being entered into the safe and therefore gain access as well.

Safes that use only a key to unlock will also aid in the prevention of nursing home theft. The advantage would be that there is no code to remember and only one way to access the lock. The disadvantage to this is if the resident were to lose the key. The keys could also be stolen or possibly copied. Two keys are usually issued with safes and it would be a good idea to have the resident keep one key and you keep the other so you will always have a backup if one is lost. Plus, it will diminish the possibility that someone else could get a hold of the other key.

The type of safe you invest in is purely a matter of preference as there are advantages and disadvantages to each type of safe as previously discussed. The situation or conditions that you are faced with will also determine what type of safe would suite your loved one best. Knowing that belongings and valuables are safe and secure from theft can ease at least some of the worries that go along with having a loved one in an assisted living facility.

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