Are Key Safes Safe for an Elderly Person’s Home?

Home supports and technology can make an immense difference in older people’s lives. Since the vast majority of elderly people prefer to remain living independently in their own homes, technologies can provide a little help where it’s needed both for day-to-day life and for emergencies.

That’s exactly why key safes come in for older people. In the case of an emergency where an older person can’t get up and let a family member or medical worker in, key safes allow helpers to enter the home without breaking down the door. In an already stressful emergency situation, that removes an obstacle that prevents help from getting to an older person fast.

But just how safe are key safes for the elderly? While it’s helpful to have a secure key box by the door, how secure are the keys inside it? Read on to learn more about key safes and the role they play in the safety of an older person’s home.

What are key safes?

In order to understand the safety basics of key safes for the elderly, let’s first define what a key safe is.

A key safe is a secure box that attaches to an exterior wall of the home. It contains a key or keys that will open the home’s front door, and it can be opened via a numeric code. This means that an older person can give someone access to their home just by sharing the code to the secure key box – no need to stand up and go to the door.

Are key safes safe for an older person’s home?

It might feel strange to know that the keys to an older person’s home are actually stored outside in a box. But key safes can be extremely safe – as long as a secure, high-quality model is chosen and installed correctly.

There are also significant safety benefits of a key safe. One is, as we’ve said, that they ensure emergency personnel can enter an elderly person’s home as quickly as possible in the case of a crisis. That can be vital in medical emergencies like heart attacks or strokes where every moment counts.

Another is that key safes keep the home safe after a crisis – unlike a door or window that’s been broken through by emergency services and leaves the home vulnerable until it’s repaired.

Lastly, of course, there’s also a financial benefit to key safes. A new, secure, high-quality door or window is expensive. Key safes mean you don’t have to worry about that cost if you’re already dealing with the aftermath of an emergency.

According to the NHS, a whopping one half of people aged over eighty will have one fall or more each year. That means it’s smart to prepare for a fall in the elderly – and to implement systems like key safes that minimise the effects of falls as much as possible.

What does a key safe need in order to be safe?

If you’re looking to purchase a key safe for an older person’s home, what should you look for? In other words, what are the traits of a high-quality key safe? Here are a range of features to consider:

Security rating

Not all key safes are made the same. An LPS1175 security rating indicates the product’s resistance to attackers trying to force open the safe. You don’t want to buy a key safe that doesn’t meet this standard.

Material of the safe

Interestingly, a secure key box should be made of strong but soft metal. That way, if someone strikes the box to try to open it, the key safe will bend rather than shattering and exposing the keys.

Weatherproofing

Are key safes safe when exposed to the elements? They are if you choose a model that can stand a wide range of temperatures and will resist rust.

Changeable code

Naturally, once an older person has shared the code to a key safe during an emergency, the safe becomes less secure until the code is changed again. The best key safes should allow you to change the code as much as is needed.

Installation

Last but not at all least, a good installation is crucial. Key safes need to be installed effectively into brick or dense concrete in order to ensure police accreditation. Often, installation services are available to ensure the safe is fitted securely.

It’s also worth mentioning that the key safe should be installed in the correct place. Fixing a key safe directly by a door will draw attention to the key safe, whereas a less obvious location is generally preferable and safer.

How to get a key safe for an elderly person’s home

Overall, key safes are like so many devices we use to keep us safe each day. Are key safes safe? Well, just as some cars or some front doors are safer than others, some key safes are highly safe, while others are less so. As with other products, a high-quality key safe is typically a better bet.

As an experienced provider of safety devices for the elderly, SureSafe understands the importance of a fast response in an emergency without any compromise on security. Our secure key box fits all the criteria we’ve discussed and is as attack-resistant as a domestic front door. What’s more, while the key safe is easy to self-install, SureSafe’s secure key safe installation service brings a SureSafe-approved installer to your home to take care of this step for you.

If you would like to find out more, don’t hesitate to call our experts on 0800 112 3201 to discuss the details, or get in touch with us via our live chat. You can request a call back too.