Getting Old: Senior Fall Risks

Falls have drastic effects on seniors. Aside from injury, they hinder one from having peace of mind and independence in their own homes.

There exist millions of fall-related incidents and injuries suffered by seniors all around the world. Whether we like it or not, encountering a fall or a slip is inevitable and hard to predict – they can happen anytime and anywhere, even inside the walls of our own homes.

About 25% of all seniors fall each year, and the risk of fall increases as a person ages.

Falls can take place two to three times or more, and each fall increases the risk of getting injured or reinjured. The sad thing about this is that it is one of the major causes of deaths of seniors and severe fractures of the elderly.

There are many reasons why seniors have a higher likelihood of falling, including:

Decreased strength, muscle tone, and eaker bones
Less balance due to medical complications of medication side effects
Reduced ability to see, worsening vision
Less endurance, flexibility, and ability to remain standing

Even though there are thousands of falls by seniors recorded in hospitals and medical centers, there are still many incidents of falls and slips unreported and unrecognized by family members and caregivers. This is why it is important for seniors, or the children of elderly parents to take precautions and preventive measures to lessen the likelihood of falls.

ELDERLY FALL PREVENTION

Falling is definitely not a planned activity, but you can plan ahead for it. These are preventative measures to take to avoid falls by seniors:

Senior exercise to stay active and retain some muscle tone is highly recommended. An exercise regimen can be as simple as a morning stroll, or a weekly dance with your spouse.
Understand your medications. A lot of medications have dizzying side-effects, and knowing how and when to take these medications is necessary.
Get enough sleep, and get up slowly. Make sure that you are not tired throughout the day by getting enough hours of bedtime. When you do need to take a break, make sure you get back up slowly to avoid a headrush.
Use an assistant to walk, whether a person or a cane. If you feel like you need help balancing, make sure that you are keeping someone or something handy in case you lose your balance.
In form your doctor of previous falls. You may have an underlying issue that is causing you to fall, and one fall increases the likelihood of more falls, so tell your doctor during your next visit.
Invest in a medical alert device. Having all the precautions may still not be enough, so be sure that you have a method to contact emergency services right away.

Not all falls result in an injury, but there are possibilities for the condition to worsen when the senior couldn’t get up due to the absence of assistance. If a senior can’t get up after a fall, the period of time of immobility affects their health and body. There is a big percentage of recovering fast from a fall incident when the senior is able to get the assistance needed as early as possible.

LIFERUN EMERGENCY SERVICE GIVEAWAY

Getting help or assistance after a fall helps improves the chance of survival by up to 80% and the possibility to return to independent living. With a medical alert system on hand, one could get the help needed right away with just the click of a button. Liferun makes sure that whenever falls may be encountered, seniors and patients can still survive the difficulty, mitigate the risk, and be assisted right away – because your peace of mind is all that matters to us.