Preventing Falls 2

Fall Prevention ideas

One

Remove home hazards

Look around your house; the most common hazard is tripping on objects on the floor. Other factors include poor lighting, loose rugs, and lack of grab bars or poorly located grab bars.

Get an occupational therapy evaluation who is trained to identify risk factors and recommend appropriate actions

Move coffee tables, magazine racks and plant stands from high-traffic areas

Remove newspapers, electrical cords, and phone cords from walkways

Remove throw rugs or use rubber backing or apply double-sided adhesive carpet tape to the backs to prevent slipping or remove them

Install handrails on both sided of stairs. Make sure to have adequate light at the bottom and top of the stairs

Store clothing, dishes, food within easy reach

Install night lights in bedroom, bathroom, and hallways

Install grab bars on bathroom walls

Use greater than 100 W light bulbs

Purchase portable phone that you can take with you or carry round neck

Two

Wear sensible shoes

Consider changing your footwear as part of your fall-prevention plan

High heels, floppy slippers, and shoes with extra-thick or slippery soles can make you slip, stumble and fall

Buy properly fitting, sturdy shoes with thin non-slip soled shoes, not thick-soled jogging shoes or heels.

Choose lace-up shoes instead of slip-on, or Velcro shoes

Three

Vision: Get your vision checked regularly

Age-related vision diseases can increase the risk of falling.

Cataracts and glaucoma alter a person’s depth perception, visual acuity, peripheral vision, and susceptibility to glare. This can hinder the ability to safely negotiate around the home.

Diminished vision can be corrected with glasses, however, often glasses are bifocal so that when a person looks down through the lower half of the glasses, the depth is altered. To prevent this, people who wear bifocals need to practice looking straight ahead and lowering the head.

Use colour contrast to balance aids like grab bars

Add contrasting colour or reflective strips to first and last steps

Clean eyeglasses regularly

Four

Medication: Make an appointment with your doctor

Have a review of your medication periodically by your physician from a perspective of fall prevention. Sedatives, anti-depressants, blood pressure medication and psychotropic drugs can contribute to falls by reducing mental alertness, alter balance, and cause drops in systolic blood pressure while standing. Also, those taking more than four medications have a higher risk of falls

Know the common side effects of all medications

Talk with your physician or pharmacist about ways to reduce your chances of falling by using the lowest dosage, regularly assessing the need for continued medication, and the need for a physical therapy evaluation for walking aids while on certain medications.

Adverse effects of medications are a potentially reversible factor in reducing falls risk and should be included in multidisciplinary falls interventions

Five

Exercise: Keep moving!

Targeted balance and mobility exercises are most effective at reducing fall risk. There is good evidence of benefit from exercise in fall prevention. Failure to exercise regularly results in poor muscle tone, decreased strength, loss of bone mass, and decreased balance. Balance is a skill or can keep or recapture at any age!!

Research shows that specific balance exercises have the strongest link to preventing falls

Get a balance assessment as part of a 6-month check-up by your Physical Therapist

Engage regularly in a custom exercise program (every day for 30 minutes) or a group exercise class