Falling impacts a senior’s life in multiple ways: physically and mentally. It can also be life-threatening. The fear of falling can even be just as life-altering as the fall itself.

How Falls Affect Your Mental Health

Seniors should be enjoying every stage of life and opportunity that may come their way. But, the fear of falling may influence seniors to stay away from activities that they enjoy. This includes everything from shopping at your local market to taking walks around the neighborhood. This fear may also stop them from engaging socially with family and friends. They may miss important, once-in-a-lifetime events like birthdays and family reunions. This disconnect with those that they love and adore may cause feelings of depression and anxiety in the future.

Physical Effects of Falling

One out of three older Americans sustains serious injuries after a fall like a fracture, a broken hip, or a concussion. Serious injuries such as these alter an individual’s life drastically. 800,000 older adults are hospitalized annually due to falls. Of those individuals, many must go to a long-term elder care recovery center for at least a year. Some of those who enter a long-term recovery center don’t ever get to go back home.

Falling: The Risk Factors

There are a variety of environmental and physical factors that go into a person’s fall risk. These factors fall into three categories: medical problems, physical problems, and the home environment. The amount of risk factors that they have translates to a high probability of falling. Some examples of risk factors are poor eyesight, arthritis, and a lack of grab bars in the bathtub. Identifying these risk factors quickly is a great way to prevent falls in the coming future.

Fall and injury prevention is incredibly important to maintaining a senior’s preferred lifestyle. But it can be hard to research risk factors and evaluate a plan on your own. At Visiting Angels of Kitsap County, we’re committed to educating older adults, their families, service providers, about various ways to reduce falls through elder care. We want our elder care to improve our client’s quality of life and lead them towards a brighter future.

Download Your Free Safe & Steady Fall Prevention Resource Guide today.