Seniors appreciate falls prevention program

BY KIRK STARRATT

The Advertiser/NovaNewsNow.com



A Centreville couple appreciates having the Kings County Falls Prevention Program available in their community.

Reg and Ellen Saunders, who had registered for the program at the Centreville United Baptist Church, said they’re interested in preventing falls. Ellen said that, as we get older, we seem to fall more often. She has seen it happen with family members and friends. She wants to take action to prevent falls from happening to her. She has fallen in the past but luckily she wasn’t injured.

She appreciates having the program available. “I think it’s very good. I only hope more participate.�

More attention is being paid to preventing falls now than in the past. Ellen said this is probably because of all the information we get through the media about various health conditions and concerns.

Sometimes as they age or are somehow injured severely, people have to consider making renovations to their homes as a safeguard against falling and for general accessibility. Ellen said she hasn’t really thought about it much, but that would always be a concern.

Reg said he isn’t so much concerned about the costs of renovations because they’re in the process of moving to an apartment on ground level. He said it would probably be good for times when their mobility isn’t as good as it is today.

“I think it’s better to move before we get to the point we have to be assisted to move,� he said.



Involves exercise program

Reg is interested in the program because he wants to maintain his health and there is an exercise program involved. He wanted to incorporate that into his activities. Reg hasn’t experienced a fall and said he has always been very active.

Reg said he thinks it’s marvelous that the program is available to area seniors. “It’s good that it’s in my own community.�

He said he was amazed when physiotherapist Wendy-Lee Hamilton, program coordinator, told them that falls are responsible for 54 per cent of all visits to hospitals in Canada for people of all ages. For people over age 65, 85 per cent of all visits to hospitals are because of falls. He said he believes the reason why we’re hearing more about falls these days is because the problem is being publicized more and health professionals are now bringing it to our attention.

As part of the program registration, participants were given physical tests and scored accordingly. Hamilton said these are before and after tests to gauge any improvement over the eight-week exercise program. There were questionnaires for participants to answer at the registration to help assess their risk factors of falling. Hamilton said there is an educational component to the program as well as the exercises.

The reason for the fitness component of the program is that out of everything related to seniors and falling, individual fitness levels are probably the easiest things to change and you can only do it for yourself.



Falls cost the health care system

Hamilton said falls cost the healthcare system $160 million in Nova Scotia in 1999 or 43 per cent of the overall healthcare budget. Looking back five or six years ago, she said only one per cent of research budgets in Canada were being spent on injury prevention. The reason for this is that people believe in the word accident. “I think people want to remove themselves from the ownership of the problem,� she said.

Accidents are unforeseeable, unpredictable incidents and this isn’t usually the case with falls. In that sense, it’s important to remove the “A� word from our vocabularies.

For people on limited incomes who have accessibility issues and need assistance with the costs of home renovations, Hamilton said there are programs available. There is a provincial program for landlords and homeowners called Help for Major Repairs and Adaptations.

Hamilton said there is a fair amount of process involved and it could take several months to get an application processed. For more information, contact the housing services office in Middleton at (902) 825-3481.

There is a federal program offered through the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The CMHC can be reached toll-free at 1-800-668-2642.

The Annapolis Valley Safe Communities Coalition is facilitating the program. Funding for the Centreville classes is coming from the Central Kings Community Health Board and funding for Berwick is coming from the Western Kings Community Health Board. The health boards receive their funding from the Wellness Initiative Fund of the provincial Department of Health Promotion and Protection.

The program is based on the “Steady As You Go� falls prevention program. For more information on the program, call Hamilton at 698-1689.