on Mar 19th, 2006Preventing Falls in the Elderly
Remember how much it hurt when you fell off your bike as kid and scraped your knee? Cut to eighty years later and falling might almost be viewed as an epidemic.
According to Eldercare Companies, “11 million U.S. elders fall each year resulting in 2-3 million injuries, yielding more than 1 million hospitalizations, costing $20+ billion and resulting in 18,000 deaths annually.”
That’s a whole lot of falling, folks. If you’re lucky, there’s a nurse nearby to help you help and look after any of your injuries. In many instances, a fall actually initiates a downward spiral into all kinds of health problems. Broken hips are usually the first casuality. Bum knees are next. It pays to implement some steps that might alleviate the fall in the first place.
Now the Niagra Falls and Victoria Falls are beatiful. Do try to see them before you reach an age where you even have to worry about falling.
Preventing Falls: A Defensive Approach
by J. Thomas Hutton M.D. Ph.D
The risk of serious injury resulting from a fall increases with age as our eyesight, ability to react quickly, memory, and cognitive functions begin to decline. For the growing population of people over age 65, falls can lead to loss of dignity and independence, and they can cause serious injury or even death.
Preventing Falls is an essential guide for the elderly, caregivers, Parkinson’s sufferers, and many others who face this health risk in their daily lives. As people age, knowing how to accommodate motor, sensory, and cognitive changes is important. While no single cause for a fall exists, the leading factors are environmental hazards, balance problems, muscle weakness, poor vision, and impaired judgment. Parkinson’s patients as well as those with various neurological or muscular disorders are especially prone to falls because their motor skills are seriously compromised. This book addresses valuable skills and coping mechanisms as well as environmental changes and assistive devices that are needed to prevent falls.
Many elderly victims of a fall require the skilled care of a nursing home within a year of the incident, especially those elders who cannot care for themselves and whose family members are unable to provide adequate help. The editors place emphasis on “successful aging”-the ability to maintain mobility and remain independent. Preventing Falls is a handy guidebook for elders to decrease their risk of falls, develop personal confidence, and maintain their independence. This vital sourcebook is complemented with a valuable 60-minute videotape offering step-by-step instruction on the best methods for preventing falls.
Falls in Older Persons: Prevention and Management
by Rein Tideiksaar
The Eldercare Companies
The ElderCare Companies are an integrated network of operating divisions and joint ventures which, taken together, have become America’s leading force for the reduction of geriatric fall-related injuries - - seeking to improve and/or save thousands of lives and billions of dollars in our nation each year. The ElderCare Companies have developed a comprehensive array of effective socio-medical and environmental interventions designed to reduce the frequency, severity and costs of falls among the elderly.