One of the most challenging tasks for independent living communities is fall prevention. Falls remain the primary cause of fatal and nonfatal injuries among the elderly. A hip or spine fracture, a brain injury, or a broken arm can all result in serious health setbacks. Independent living in Riverview, FL, provides several methods of mitigating the risk of sustaining a fall.
Falls can happen at home or in senior living, but communities take significant measures to reduce the risk. A community may considerably enhance the well-being of its guests by implementing a thorough fall prevention strategy.
Avoidance Of Clutter
The most straightforward approach to avoid falls to keep an apartment clean and tidy. Removing debris from hallways and staircases makes it easier to move around in the apartment, reducing the risk of falls. By providing daily housekeeping services, independent living communities can easily eliminate clutter as soon as it manifests. They also arrange items in an organized fashion for the same reason.
Teamwork
Individual initiatives help, but complete fall prevention for guests necessitates a team effort. It’s critical to understand that falls are not a normal part of aging and that preventing falls requires a collaborative effort.
Staff members emphasize watching residents and report any mental or physical changes that may raise the risk of a fall, such as disorientation or changes in gait. All this is done through a team approach. For instance, a team member responsible for providing exercise to the guest could notice a physical problem that could put the guest at risk. They would need to report this to monitor the guest more closely. When participating in activities, a guest might seem abnormally absent-minded, which could mean the onset of pathology in mentation.
When these issues are noticed, guests may be evaluated for interventions such as medication or physical activity to improve balance.
Providing Appropriate Physical Therapy And Exercise
Exercises that focus on increasing strength, balance, agility, and coordination have been demonstrated in studies to help decrease falls in seniors. Some of these include Leg and heel rises and walking in place; these develop the calf and thigh muscles. This drastically reduces the risk of falls in the future.
The exercises are usually administered by professional team members and gradually increase in intensity. The goal is to keep the guest safe while ensuring they gain the desired benefits.
Beware Of Medication Side Effects
Some medication can increase the risk of falls by inducing dizziness, fainting spells, and weakness. These include drugs used to treat hypertension, diabetes, and other diseases common in retirees. This effect becomes more common when the drugs are combined. Senior living facilities usually understand which drugs their guests are taking and advise them accordingly if they are deemed to cause a fall potentially. For instance, they can be told only to take the drug when going to bed. They can also take the medication when they have enough time to rest for a few minutes so that they don’t can avoid falling over.
