Preventing Falls Among Older Adults

The Reality

Each year, one in every three adults ages 65 or older falls and 2 million are treated in emergency departments for fall-related injuries. And the risk of falling increases with each decade of life. The long-term consequences of fall injuries, such as hip fractures and traumatic brain injuries (TBI), can impact the health and independence of older adults. Thankfully, falls are not an inevitable part of aging. In fact, many falls can be prevented. Everyone can take actions to help in Preventing Falls Among Older Adults, with some simple steps you can protect the older adults you care about.

Prevention Tips

You can play a role in preventing falls. Encourage the older adults in your life to:

Get some exercise. Lack of exercise can lead to weak legs and this increases the chances of falling. Exercise programs such as Tai Chi can increase strength and improve balance, making falls much less likely.
Be mindful of medications. Some medicines—or combinations of medicines—can have side effects such as dizziness or drowsiness. This can make falling more likely. Poor vision can make it harder to get around safely. Older adults should have their eyes checked every year and wear glasses or contact lenses with the right prescription strength to ensure they are seeing clearly.
Eliminate hazards at home. About half of all falls happen at home. A home safety check can help identify potential fall hazards that need to be removed or changed, such as tripping hazards, clutter, and poor lighting.

Steps for Home Safety

The following checklist can help older adults reduce their risk of falling at home:

Remove things you can trip over (such as papers, books, clothes, and shoes) from stairs and places where you walk.
Install handrails and lights on all staircases.
Remove small throw rugs or use double-sided tape to keep the rugs from slipping.
Keep items you use often in cabinets you can reach easily without using a step stool.
Put grab bars inside and next to the tub or shower and next to your toilet.
Use non-slip mats in the bathtub and on shower floors.
Improve the lighting in your home. As you get older, you need brighter lights to see well. Hang lightweight curtains or shades to reduce glare.
Wear shoes both inside and outside the house. Avoid going barefoot or wearing slippers.

Advice for Older People

World Sepsis Day Support

Sepsis Facts

Every three heartbeats, someone dies of sepsis. In the developing world, sepsis accounts for 60-80% of childhood deaths. Those who survive, both adults and children, often struggle with life. It’s our goal to reduce the incidence of sepsis by 20% by 2020.

For this, we ask your support. Source: http://www.world-sepsis-day.org/

The team at myhomecareie.wpengine.com fully support World Sepsis Day and would like to take the time to highlight the fantastic work being done internationally to combat and prevent this infection. For full details on World Sepsis Day please visit http://www.world-sepsis-day.org/

We are also delighted to announce that we are supporting Our Lady of Lourdes on their information day on World Sepsis Day.

How to prevent Sepsis

Sepsis is always caused by an infection, most often by bacteria, but sometimes by fungi or protozoa (such as malaria). That means that preventing infection is one of the best ways to prevent sepsis.
For centuries, our natural immune system has served to protect us from severe infections.

Sanitation and clean delivery.

Insufficient hygiene conditions in resource-poor areas for giving birth, treating wounds, and in healthcare facilities in general are a tremendous problem. In some parts of the world, unsanitary facilities or contaminated water cause severe infections in the digestive system, which often end in a deadly case of sepsis. That’s why one of our key starting points is the promotion of hand hygiene and good general hygiene practices, clean deliveries, improvements in sanitation and nutrition, the delivery of clean water, as well as vaccination programs for patient populations at risk in resource-poor areas.

Source:http://www.world-sepsis-day.org/

Infection Prevention and Control Course Ireland

Delivered by Servisource Training

This Infection Prevention and Control Course aims to deliver to staff the simple and most effective knowledge and practices to reduce healthcare associated infections (HCAIs) in their workplace.

For full details on how we can train your staff please visit: Servisource Training

Advice for Older People

My Home Care Presentation – Who We Are

A recent presentation produced by our Homecare Manager Denis O Leary for Mallow Primary Healthcare Centre.

Advice for Older People

Get Your Folks Online

Mum, Dad….

Say Hello to the World Wide Web, everything you ever needed to know at your fingertips.

If parents or grandparents you know still haven’t got to grips with the Internet, they’re really missing out.

Google and Age Action have teamed up to create free bite-size courses that you can take them through, step-by-step. There’s everything from how to use a mouse, right up to trickier things like making Skype calls or searching for shows on the RTÉ Player.

And before you know it, they’ll be up and running and chuffed you took the time to share your know-how.

We at MyHomeCare fully support this fantastic promotion to get parents and grandparents to start using PCs and the Internet. As a teacher of adult education courses I myself see a big increase in age brackets in our Computers for Beginners class. Each year around 80% of my class consists of students over the age of 50. I see people coming in who are visibly shaking with nerves who have little or no experience of using a PC. With a little help and encouragement these same people walk out of a classroom 30 hours later full of confidence and ready to progress to the next level.

The main issue I see with this age group is a fear of failure and a very low level of self-worth. The first thing I do in my class is to try and break down that fear barrier and reassure them that they are not alone and that everyone else in the class is starting at the same level. Through constant positive reinforcement and encouragement my students get a real hunger for learning how to do new things on the PC and the Internet and most of them want to get home and show the grandchildren what they can now do. Although it may seem funny I believe the grandchildren are actually driving a lot of the older age group to learn new technologies for the simple fact of having something to talk about with them, to get involved in what the grandchildren are doing and to maintain and strengthen the bond between them.

It really is fantastic that children these days are growing up surrounded by technology and are so comfortable using technologies that they very quickly adapt when a new technology comes into the market. To see my 4 year old intelligently using my ipad does my heart good. The down side of the youth being so readily plugged in to everything online and comfortable with PCs is that the gap between themselves and the older generation widens and that all important parental bond weakens a little bit.

This is one of the reasons I encourage action to be taken by the older generation and fully support the Get Your Folks Online initiative

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