Falls are the bane of most seniors. According to the CDC, approximately 3 million older individuals are treated due to falls causing injuries, and more than 750,000 are hospitalized. One of the most common surgical procedures in this age group is hip replacement due to these falls. Many factors contribute to an increased risk of falls and knowing them will allow you to protect a loved one from falls. This is important because though access to medical facilities is increasing all over the world, the death rate due to falls has increased by 30%, and this is set to keep increasing year-on-year for the foreseeable future. Treatment of such falls is also costly and largely preventable. Living in an independent living community in Frisco, TX reduces the risk of falls by a significant amount, so this could be one of the steps taken to protect a loved one. Some of the reasons why this is so include:
More Team Members are Available to Help
A retirement community typically has more support team members (both professional and non-professional) to help prevent falls, and to provide rapid assistance in case a guest sustains a fall. This reduces the time that one has between sustaining the fall and receiving the proper medical care. This is in contrast to staying at home, where most senior individuals either live alone or are under the care of third parties such as house helps, who may not always be keen to keep checking on them. This results in a delay in the event of a fall. In many cases, it is a loved one who notices the fall after coming home, rather than the individual who was in the house the whole day.
The General Design of the Communities
Retirement communities are designed around the philosophy of keeping the guests safe, happy and calm. This takes into consideration the nature of their health, and then ensures that their needs are met. For instance, the paths between apartments and other amenities such as restaurants tend to have gradual slopes rather than steps, which make it easier to walk back and forth, and to allow wheelchair use. You will also notice many rails which one can use as support of they need it, particularly in areas where they need to walk up a step or to or when the incline is steep. All these measures might seem small but end up drastically reducing the number of falls sustained. The homes and apartments in the community also adhere to this philosophy.
The Layout of Homes and Apartments
The homes and apartments in retirement communities are designed around the guest in mind. At the basic minimum, the homes have features such as benches in the bathroom that allow one to sit when taking a shower, anti-slip flooring in the showers and all other living areas. Guests can also use technology such as digital watches with fall detectors which will send an alarm to team members to come help immediately a fall is detected.
If you are considering assisted living where the risk of falls is minimized, please contact our retirement community today!
