Fall Prevention

Fall Prevention Programs This Summer

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Lifespan offers regular classes to help seniors and their families prevent falls.  Coming up this summer:

TAI CHI FOR ARTHRITIS & FALL PREVENTION-PART 1 AT THE MAPLEWOOD ROSE GARDEN

Thursdays, June 2 – August 5, 2022, 11-11:45 am. This class is held in-person at the Maplewood Rose Garden. Click here for more information and to register.

A MATTER OF BALANCE IN IRONDEQUOIT

Irondequoit Recreation Center

Tuesdays, June 14 to August 23, 2022, 1-3 pm. Registration is required, can be completed through the Irondequoit Recreation Center and can be accessed here.

TAI CHI FOR ARTHRITIS AND FALL PREVENTION [IN-PERSON]

Lifespan Main Office

Tuesdays & Fridays, 3-3:45 pm, June 14-August 9, 2022.  Click here for more information and to register.

FALLING INTO AWARENESS: AN HONEST CHAT ABOUT FALL PREVENTION

Lifespan Main Office.

Thursday, June 23, 2022, 1-2pm. A 1-hour panel discussion led by experts in the field of balance and preventing falls. Bring your fall-related questions, and get ready to feel empowered and enlightened! Click here for more information and to register.

TAI CHI FOR ARTHRITIS IN THE TOWN OF RUSH

Rush Firehouse, 1971 Rush Mendon Rd

Mondays & Thursdays, July 11- Aug 30, 2022, 9 – 9:45 am. Seated or standing. Sixteen 45-minute to 1-hour sessions, twice a week for 8 weeks or once a week for 16 weeks.  Registration is through the Town of Rush and can be accessed here. If you are having any difficulty registering, please email our Lifespan Health & Wellness program manager at sotis@lifespan-roch.org.

Interpreting services, translation services, and additional accommodations are available upon request (with advanced notice).

Servicios de interpretación disponibles con solicitud previa. Por favor, dejenos saber con anticipación. Favor de llamar (585) 244-8400 y marque 9.

A Window On Safety

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It’s time to throw open the windows—but do so carefully. Windows rank as one of the top hidden hazards in our homes (Learn about the others here). An average of eight children age 5 and younger die and more than 3,300 are injured each year from falling out of windows (SafeKids Worldwide, 2022). The Window Safety Task Force provides these tips to help protect children from accidental window falls:

  • Don’t rely on insect screens to prevent a fall. Insect screens are designed to keep bugs out, not to keep children in the home.
  • When opening a window for ventilation, use those located out of a child’s reach. 
  • Supervise children to keep child’s play away from windows, balconies or patio doors. 
  • Avoid placing furniture near windows to prevent young children from climbing and gaining access to an open window.
  • Use only cordless window coverings or those with inaccessible cords in homes with young children. Free retrofit kits are available through the Window Covering Safety Council.

Don’t forget to look to windows when planning your home fire drill and emergency escape routes. You should plan two possible ways out of any room, especially bedrooms, in case the door can’t be used because of smoke or fire. That second exit is probably a window. Make sure the window can be opened, and practice doing so.

1-Minute Moves That Stop Injuries

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You say you just don’t have time to prevent injuries?  If you’ve got less than one minute to devote to safety, use it to:

  1. Wipe up a spill right away. Falls are the leading cause of nonfatal unintentional injuries for every age group, except 10 to 24 year olds—and for them it’s the second leading cause! Wiping up spills is one of several simple ways to prevent falls.
  2. Not leave a child alone near water (yes, even for less than a minute). Kids don’t drown only in pools. Bathtubs, buckets, toilets, and hot tubs can be drowning dangers as well.
  3. Test your smoke alarm to make sure it’s still working, and everyone in your household can hear it. Even alarms that are hard-wired or have long-life batteries need to be checked. You should have at least one working smoke alarm on each floor, and one inside every sleeping area is best. Consider having both ionization and photoelectric alarms, or dual alarms that incorporate both technologies. Ionization smoke alarms respond best to flaming fires, and photoelectric to smoldering fires.
  4. Put away matches or lighters in a high cabinet or locked drawer, out of sight and reach of children. Children playing with fire is a leading cause of fire deaths for children under age 5.
  5. Turn off portable space heaters when you leave the room or go to sleep. Space heaters are involved in 32% of heating fires but cause 82% of associated deaths and 64% of injuries.
  6. Adjust the thermostat on your water heater to keep hot water less than 120°F, to prevent scalds.
  7. Turn off the stove if you have to leave the kitchen while cooking. Unattended equipment is the #1 contributing factor in cooking fire deaths.
  8. Put on your glasses and read the fine print on that medicine bottle. Unintentional poisonings have risen steadily since 1992, and for people 35 to 54 years old, they’re causing more deaths than motor vehicle crashes. Know how much, and how often, you can safely take any medication whether prescription or over-the-counter, as well as possible interactions with other drugs.
  9. Keep the metal mesh screen of your fireplace closed, but leave glass doors open while burning a fire. The U.S. Fire Administration says leaving the doors open gives the fire enough air and keeps creosote from building up in the chimney. The screen helps keep embers from getting out of the fireplace. Close the glass doors when the fire is out to keep air from the chimney from getting into the room.

Got a few minutes more? Use these 8 simple tips.

8 Simple Ways to Prevent Injuries

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Our 1-minute moves can prevent injuries and take a total of less than 10 minutes. If you can find just a few minutes more, use them to:

  1. Put away household cleaners and medications in a place that’s out of sight and reach of children.
  2. Clear clutter from hallways and exits to prevent tripping.
  3. Install handrails on stairs and adequate lighting at the top and bottom of the stairs. Leading causes of adult injuries include falls from stairs, steps and ladders.
  4. Use this fire safety checklist to check your home for hazards.
  5. Call to schedule an annual chimney cleaning.
  6. Play Help Mikey Make It Out with your kids. This fun, interactive game at homefiredrill.org teaches life-saving home escape lessons.
  7. Plan and practice your home escape. Working smoke alarms and CO detectors save lives, but does everyone in your home know what to do when they sound–especially in the middle of the night? Does everyone know your meeting place outside, where you can find each other and firefighters can find you? Visit homefiredrill.org.
  8. Check the manufacturers instructions to see if you should replace your CO detector. You need a  new detector every two to 10 years, depending on the model. Carbon monoxide kills in minutes, and unlike smoke from a fire it’s colorless, tasteless and odorless. It can be created by open flames, space heaters, water heaters, blocked chimneys or running a car inside a garage (even with the door open). If you have only one carbon monoxide detector, the Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends it be located near the sleeping area, where it can wake you.

Take Steps to Prevent Falls

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Most of us routinely take certain steps to protect ourselves from potential health problems, like washing hands and getting vaccinations.  Experts recommend that we also take measures to protect themselves against a major threat to a healthy life, especially for people over  65:  falling.

Falls are the leading cause of injury-related death for people over 65. Nearly 24,000 people in that age group died after a fall in 2012, the most recent year for which fatality numbers are available — almost double the number 10 years earlier. And more than 2.4 million people over 65 were treated in emergency departments for injuries from falls, an increase of 50 percent (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention).

In a New York Times article that surveyed physicians working with people at high risk of falls, one major recommendation was the same as that given for reducing many other health risks: regular exercise. Not only does it help prevent falls, but it can help minimize injuries if a fall does occur. Exercise that includes balance work is especially recommended, such as tai chi.

“If only we could put tai chi in a pill,” said Dr. Lewis A. Lipsitz, a professor of medicine at Harvard and a vice president of academic medicine at Hebrew SeniorLife, where he has seen marked improvement resulting from tai chi programs in two facilities.

Other recommendations from doctors who work with people at high risk for falls:

  • Stay hydrated, especially on hot days or if you have low blood pressure, which can cause dizziness.
  • Discuss your medications with your physician to eliminate medications that might not be necessary, or reduce dosages if possible. People on multiple medications can be at especially high risk of falling.
  • Have their eyes checked at least once a year and wear single-vision glasses while out on walks. A study published in the British Medical Journal found that bifocal and progressive lenses can cause missteps.

Prevention 1st suggests these additional simple, effective steps to reduce falls:

  • Remove scatter rugs and clutter that can be tripping hazards.
  • Install handrails on stairs, and have adequate lighting at the top and bottom of stairs.
  • Wipe up spills immediately.

Find more ways to protect yourself and your loved ones from falls on this website.

How to Respond to an Epidemic

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Imagine an epidemic so virulent that it is the leading cause of death for children, teens, young adults. It takes 125,000 lives in America alone every year, not to mention causing nearly $80 billion in medical costs. Such an epidemic would surely inspire extensive media coverage, politicians insisting that something be done, and intense public concern about how to protect themselves and their families.

All of the above is true for the epidemic of preventable injuries—minus the media hype, political outcry and public concern.

Amid the relentless media coverage of Ebola in Texas, columnist Frank Bruni recently asked his readers a question: “Have you had your flu shot?” Bruni’s point was that while close to 50,000 Americans may die in a bad flu year, less than half of us receive the simple vaccination against it. “Ebola in the United States certainly warrants concern,” he writes. “But Americans already have such answers about a host of other, greater perils to our health.”

While there may not be a vaccination against injuries, there are many simple, inexpensive and proven effective steps that anyone can take to protect themselves:

  • Do you fasten your seat belt, and make sure that others do, every time you drive or are a passenger? Tens of thousands of Americans die in car crashes annually, and according to a federal analysis from 2012, more than half of them weren’t wearing seatbelts.
  • Do you have a smoke alarm, and have you tested it lately to be sure it’s still working? Having a working smoke alarm cuts the risk of dying in a home fire in half. (See more simple steps for fire safety.)
  • Do you have handrails on all stairs, and good lighting at the top and bottom of stairs? Falls are a leading cause of death for Americans 65 and older, and a leading cause of injuries for everyone. (See more ways to protect your family from falls/ protega a su familia de las caídas).
  • Do you make sure all medications and household poisons are out of reach of children? The growing use of prescription medicines by both adults and children has had a particularly serious side effect on children–a 22% surge in accidental drug poisonings of children. And 43 percent of children admitted to the hospital after accidentally ingesting a prescription drug ended up in intensive care. (See more ways to protect your family from poisons/ protega a su familia de envenenamientos).

There are many more simple, readily available and effective ways to protect yourself from the epidemic of injuries. Find them at Prevention 1st‘s Safety Resources.

17 Quick, Easy, Inexpensive Ways to Stay Safe at Home

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“Safe at home.” It’s how we feel when we close the door behind us at the end of a long day. But how often do we take a moment to make sure we truly are as safe as we feel in our own homes? Preventable injuries — including home fires and burns, household poisons, drowning and falls — are the leading cause of death for children, teens and young adults (you’ll be glad to know “young” means up to age 44). They’re one of the leading causes of death for older adults too. Let’s say you’re not afraid of dying. Why take the time to be safer?

  • You have better places to spend time than the emergency department. Injuries account for more than a third of all emergency department visits. The average wait time in EDs across the country is four hours and seven minutes, according to the engrossing reading of a recent Emergency Department Pulse Report. What would you rather do with those four hours?
  • Safer is cheaper. Injuries cost the nation $80 billion every year in medical costs alone. The estimated lifetime cost of injuries occurring in a single year in the U.S is more than $406 billion. No matter how good your health insurance is, an injury can take hundreds or thousands of dollars straight out of your pocket.
  • You want to get on with your life. A broken hip from a fall that could have been prevented may keep you from enjoying your normal activities for months. And do you really want to spend Rochester’s brief summer in the rehab center?

You say you just don’t have time to prevent injuries?  If you’ve got less than one minute to devote to safety, use it to:

  1. Wipe up a spill right away. Falls are the leading causeof nonfatal unintentional injuries for every age group, except 10 to 24 year olds—and for them it’s the second leading cause! Wiping up spills is one of several simple ways to prevent falls.
  2. Not leave a child alone near water (yes, even for less than a minute). Kids don’t drown only in pools. Bathtubs, buckets, toilets, and hot tubs can be drowning dangers as well.
  3. Test your smoke alarm to make sure it’s still working, and everyone in your household can hear it. Even alarms that are hard-wired or have long-life batteries need to be checked. You should have at least one working smoke alarm on each floor, and one inside every sleeping area is best. Consider having both ionization and photoelectric alarms, or dual alarms that incorporate both technologies. Ionization smoke alarms respond best to flaming fires, and photoelectric to smoldering fires.
  4. Put away matches or lighters in a high cabinet or locked drawer, out of sight and reach of children. Children playing with fire is a leading cause of fire deaths for children under age 5.
  5. Turn off portable space heaters when you leave the room or go to sleep. Space heaters are involved in 32% of heating fires but cause 82% of associated deaths and 64% of injuries.
  6. Adjust the thermostat on your water heater to keep hot water less than 120°F, to prevent scalds.
  7. Turn off the stove if you have to leave the kitchen while cooking. Unattended equipment is the #1 contributing factor in cooking fire deaths.
  8. Put on your glasses and read the fine print on that medicine bottle. Unintentional poisonings have risen steadily since 1992, and for people 35 to 54 years old, they’re causing more deaths than motor vehicle crashes. Know how much, and how often, you can safely take any medication whether prescription or over-the-counter, as well as possible interactions with other drugs.
  9. Keep the metal mesh screen of your fireplace closed, but leave glass doors open while burning a fire. The U.S. Fire Administration says leaving the doors open gives the fire enough air and keeps creosote from building up in the chimney. The screen helps keep embers from getting out of the fireplace. Close the glass doors when the fire is out to keep air from the chimney from getting into the room.

If you can find just a few minutes use them to:

  1. Put away household cleaners and medications in a place that’s out of sight and reach of children.
  2. Clear clutter from hallways and exits to prevent tripping.
  3. Install handrails on stairs and adequate lighting at the top and bottom of the stairs. Leading causes of adult injuries include falls from stairs, steps and ladders.
  4. Use this fire safety checklist to check your home for hazards.
  5. Call to schedule an annual chimney cleaning.
  6. Play Help Mikey Make It Out with your kids. This fun, interactive game at www.homefiredrill.org teaches life-saving home escape lessons.
  7. Plan and practice your home escape. Working smoke alarms and CO detectors save lives, but does everyone in your home know what to do when they sound–especially in the middle of the night? Does everyone know your meeting place outside, where you can find each other and firefighters can find you? Visit www.homefiredrill.org.
  8. Check the manufacturers instructions to see if you should replace your CO detector. New York State law requires CO detectors to be installed in all new and existing homes having any fuel-burning appliance or attached garage. But you need a  new detector every two to 10 years, depending on the model. Carbon monoxide kills in minutes, and unlike smoke from a fire it’s colorless, tasteless and odorless. It can be created by open flames, space heaters, water heaters, blocked chimneys or running a car inside a garage (even with the door open). If you have only one carbon monoxide detector, the Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends it be located near the sleeping area, where it can wake you.