September is Fall Prevention Awareness Month. Seniors will continue to see that message on bulletin boards, in newsletters, and in E-mail. The fact is older adults and young children are the most likely to incur serious injury from falls, including brain trauma bone injuries that can be life changing. But falls can cause serious disruption to anyone of all ages.
Young children are most likely to do something unexpected, or make a tragic choice when not realizing the consequences, but, older adults are often at risk of the same types of actions. Seniors may forget that they haven’t hiked up a hill in a while, let’s say years, or haven’t had to maneuver a ladder to change a light bulb in quite a while. An unexpected fall could indicate the beginning of dementia, disorientation, or disease.
I remember helping my parents. Dad knew he couldn’t handle climbing a ladder, but Mom, well she would just forget how old she was at any given moment, and she would try to do things that she should not do. A tragic fall brought on her death only a few days afterwards. The memories are hard to deal with, even 10 years later. The personal resolve is to try not to go the same way, however, is definitely is part of my every-day resolve.
There are ways to reduce risks of falling for older adults. Your physician may recommend reading for awareness, and recommend you assess and monitor your abilities. But, to actually prevent falling, well, that is an individual choice and an individual challenge. We need, each of us as individuals, to realize that our health depends on us, and our personal resolve to try to keep ourselves healthy.
One of the most important things a person can do to protect health is to get up, get out, and get moving! I believe that September is Fall Prevention Awareness Month not just because it is a good opportunity to use the mental image of fall in the name, but because we are moving into Autumn weather, with many days of rain, snow, and sleet, and increased time indoors when we have the most sedentary lifestyle of the year. A sedentary lifestyle and fear of falling on wet, slick, surfaces is the greatest risk to our health! Staying indoors and not physically active is not going to protect anyone from falls. It is actually going to increase the likelihood of falling in the future.
The best way to reduce risk of falls is to be active, walking, moving, and exercising. Let’s think back to when we were children. We used our muscles and bodies in everything we did. We crawled, walked, climbed, and ran. As adults, we start slowing down, and as a result, we can lose our awareness of our own body space, our bodies’ abilities and limitations, and an innate knowledge of what we can do and cannot do. Many injuries occur when we think we can but haven’t tried it for a long time. If we have not used our muscles, or have lost muscle tone, and try to do something we have not done in a long time, that is when injury occurs. If we over-extend ourselves such as weekend warriors, following many months of inactivity, that is when injuries occur.
There are so many great days ahead, beautiful weather days, and great opportunities to get up and get out and moving! Whether it’s a walk in the park, or a yoga class on television, we need to make a decision to move our bodies every day. Staying connected with the world and staying connected with ourselves is one of the best ways to live our lives to the fullest.
For more information on fall prevention strategies, classes in your area, and other helpful activities and information for seniors and their caregivers, visit ageguide.org/leaves-fall-people-should-not.
Barb Nadeau is the community relations manager for the Voluntary Action Center of Northern Illinois and represents five counties. Barb has worked many years as a professional television and radio host, as well as a print and social media journalist, and as a volunteer coordination professional networking amongst non-profit social service agencies throughout Illinois. She is a freelance writer and an elected alderman in the city government of Plano. Contact Barb at bvnadeau@gmail.com.