Why Falls Are Dreadful for Seniors
One of the major issues related to the seniors’ well-being at home is their safety from falls. As statistics shows, about 30% of all seniors aged over 65 are prone to falls and a great number of them end up in an emergency room as a result, with some consequences even being fatal.
Ground-level fall is one of the most frequent among seniors. It may not be as dangerous as a fall from the stairs, or a window. However, the latter are not that frequent than the former and the older a person gets, the higher is the risk.
Falls can have various consequences with regards to where a person lands and what part of a body got the worst damage. A slip in the bathroom can both end with a broken arm as well as a head trauma – both are dreadful but surely, the latter can be much more serious in terms of consequences.
Sad statistic shows that brain trauma resulted from a fall ends up fatally in as many as 41% of cases. Let alone the number of people that have to apply for emergency room help when they fall and get injured.
Many seniors require therapy after they experienced a fall – many of them can stay immobilized for months. The bones are fragile and they can’t back to normal as fast as younger people; besides, many seniors are able to go through anesthetics and sedation easily. It is also true that most seniors are quite unable to return to independent living after a fall and fall-related injury, the majority will require at least some amount of assistance and care, some would need a professional nursing assistance.
All these things can be prevented, or at least, delayed, by making sure that any risk of a fall is foreseen and taken care of.
Fall Prevention Tips
One should take into consideration the state of a particular senior individual when talking about fall prevention. All elderly people have different physical state as well as conditions, some have better eyesight, others have hearing or mobility problems – all this should be taken into consideration. Surely, there are major issues as slippery floor and poor lightning; however, there is a great deal of smaller but not less important issues.
First thing about taking care of seniors is that they should never be afraid of a possibility of a fall. This is essential.
The next step is to create a fall-proof environment that is mostly construction of a space in the house that would be comfortable for a senior to move around and feel safe at all its parts.
Making sure that all medications are in one place and that they are always present and in a proper order will help a senior not to be worried about this issue, and this is also a way to keep all things at one easily approachable place where a person can reach them at all times without effort.
It is equally important to make sure that a person had some share of exercise at home and outdoors. This might require some space and a bit of equipment; however, it is a useful thing to do as elderly people who are used to move a lot are better coordinated and are less prone to falls and injuries.
It also makes sense to check your senior members of the family regularly. Bone and eyesight checkups are simple preventive measures that can help avoid problems in the future.
One more option to help your elderly near-and-dear is to get one of the medical alert systems for seniors – most of them have got auto fall detection feature that can be dreadfully useful in some situations, especially when seniors are home alone frequently.
Guest Author: Nata Ts
photo paffairs_sanfrancisco
