Fall Prevention

As we prepare to promote public awareness on how to prevent falls among adults over 65, my homework assignment has suddenly become more than collecting statistical data.

My sister, the co-captain of her high school cheer leading team, the girl who stepped onto the track and caused some boys on the track team to go sit down because they feared she might out run them, is a year and two weeks shy of the milestone. She recently took a tumble on her front porch steps and suffered fractured bones and a dislocated right ankle. Treated and released, she is recovering comfortably.

About a year ago, our aunt, then 85, took a similar tumble down a short flight of back porch steps.
Aunt Eula, a retired award winning elementary school principle, sometimes thinks she is still running it...or that she should be.
She can still wear her skirts hemmed awfully close to the knee while wearing heels. She has over ruled medical authority on taking meds and the family has gently suggested that because she can...is not a reason why she should.

The tumble is a case in point.
A new front door to her home was installed to replace the old which had been placed on the rear porch to be removed later.

Ms, aunt Eula, the boss, all five feet nothing and maybe 135 pounds, a tomboy in her youth, could not wait for the door to be removed. So....!

Fortunately, a passerby heard her cries for help. Aunt Eula, fractures to her wrist, waited patiently on the ground until fire and police arrived to remove the door from her body, made to look even smaller and more frail under that big old wooden door.

We are a blessed family. We will smile about these things at Thanks Giving dinner but for many older adults and their families, falls are no smiling matter.

Each day, 10,000 Baby Boomers will turn 65. This will go on for the next 19 years. Over the course of their remaining years, statistics show that a third will fall. Of  those who do, a significant number will suffer debilitating, even fatal injuries.
Of those who recover, many will suffer a fear of falling which in turn can lead to limiting the very activities that can prevent falls or reduce the seriousness of an injury due to a fall.
In 2007, the last year for figures, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, reported that over 18,000 older adults died from unintentionally falls.

Fall Prevention Awareness activities, set for September 23, the first of autumn, is to draw attention to the dangers of falling. It is sponsored by the Center for Healthy Aging in cooperation with the National Council on Aging.