Were you aware that when Florida senior adults fall it can cause devastating injuries and have long-term effects on the overall health of senior adults, sometimes even death? However, the good news is that most falls are preventable. By initiating lifestyle adjustments and support from adult children, aging Florida parents and grandparents can greatly reduce the risk of falling, and the hip fractures and head injuries that too often result.
Because of the serious rise in falls among seniors the National Council on Aging hosts the National Fall Prevention Awareness Day in the month of September, this year it is on September 22nd. This day falls during National Fall Prevention Awareness Week, which this month is September18-24, 2022. This event offers a wide range of educational tools and materials to learn about the impact of senior falls and the costs to their families. More information can be found here.
How can you help your Florida senior? As a family, determine the risk level of your senior parent and whether any additional assistance is needed. Have you noticed any of these warning signs:
• A decline in mental alertness
• A recent fall, or near-fall
• Vision problems
• Balance issues
• Frailty and muscular weakness
• Changes in physical health, such as a recent surgery
Another prevention tip to consider might be to find exercise support groups that offer evidence-based programs, such as Tai Chi. You might want to help your senior loved one set up screening for osteoporosis and have his or her prescription medications evaluated for side effects, like dizziness, which are also manageable precautions.
How does your senior loved one’s home look? Home safety is very important and you can introduce measures that can further reduce or eliminate senior adult falls. Some suggestions would be to:
• Improve all lighting both inside and outside a senior parent’s home
• Remove rugs or securing the edges to the floor
• Fix any broken floorboards, cracked pavement and other uneven surfaces
• Rearrange furniture to create wide walkways
• Remove any and all clutter and small objects from the floor
• Add grab bars to bathtubs, stairways and toilet areas
A word of caution and advice. If a fall occurs outside a senior parent’s home, it is strongly recommended to contact a qualified elder care attorney and learn about an older loved one’s rights. Falls outside the home are sometimes caused by negligence and there is little anyone at any age can do to prevent them. Recouped monies may be needed to pay for expensive medical care.
We believe in a collaborative approach to helping our clients. This means that our assistance does not end with just legal help. We work closely with other senior providers to make sure all our clients’ needs are taken care of from start to finish. Our mission is to make sure every family feels that they have been taken care of, have peace of mind and have someone to lean on during difficult times.
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