Governor Puts Senior Fall Prevention in the Spotlight
More than one-third of North Carolina seniors age 65 and older will be injured in a fall this year. More troubling is the fact that, once a senior has fallen, their risk of subsequent falls rises sharply. Preventing falls among the elderly is not a clear-cut task, as there are a myriad of reasons that we become increasingly unsteady on our feet as we age. It’s a particularly vexing issue for elder care providers like Carillon Assisted Living, and we were pleased this week to learn that it troubles Governor Pat McCrory, as well.
Kudos to the governor for proclaiming the week of September 22-27 Falls Prevention Awareness Week. We suspect he did so in part to call attention to the work of the North Carolina Falls Prevention Coalition. The group is made up of more than 75 organizations from across the state who are working to increase falls awareness, initiate and promote multidisciplinary strategies to prevent falls.
The coalition’s work is sorely needed because, when seniors don’t know why they fell, they are likely to become fearful and avoid physical activity in general. In the absence of much-needed physical exercise, frailty is quick to set in – which in turn causes more falls. It’s an unfortunate cycle that we see all too often among prospective residents at Carillon Assisted Living.
Keeping our residents strong, mobile and as independent as possible is one of our primary concerns at Carillon. Put simply – our residents move, and the more they move, the less they fall. It’s not always as simple as that, but the basic premise is – the stronger, the better.
Carillon Assisted Living is excited to see how the work of this coalition will impact seniors over the months and years to come. Working together, we can help seniors stay stronger, longer.
Posted in Sage Stories on September 26, 2014