Finding balance: Classes show seniors how to prevent falls
Podcast Episode
There's an effort in Rock County help people avoid a dangerous threat: falling. Kyle Geissler reports.
If you go
What: Stepping On fall-prevention program offered by the Rock County Council on Aging and Rock County Health Department
When: Programs in Janesville and Beloit start Tuesday, April 7, and run weekly through May 19.
Where: The Janesville class will be 5 to 7 p.m. at the Rock County Health Department/Council on Aging Building, 3328 Highway 51, Janesville.
The Beloit class will be 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at the Merrill Community Center, 1428 Wisconsin Ave., Beloit.
Cost: $10
To register: Call (608) 757-5438
Avoiding falls
Lori McMillan, health educator at the Rock County Health Department, offered suggestions to avoid falls:
-- Look for fall hazards in every room of the house, including slippery spills in the kitchen or clothes scattered in the bedroom.
-- Install grab bars around the bathtub.
-- Make sure paths in and out of the house are clear.
-- Don't leave shoes by the door.
-- Know your medications. Interactions can cause dizziness, tiredness and other symptoms that could result in a fall.
-- Wear proper footwear and properly sized clothing.
-- Know how to use your cane.
-- When using stairs, always go up with your good leg and down with your bad leg.
-- Don't shuffle while walking. Pick up your feet so you don't stumble.
JANESVILLE — Wisconsin ranks in the top five in the country in number of deaths from falling.
Falls cost an estimated $237 million annually in Wisconsin, and one-third of people over 65 fall every year, resulting in doctor visits, hospitalization, emergency room visits, loss of independence and death.
The good news is falls are preventable.
That's why Lori McMillan, health educator at the Rock County Health Department, is excited about two upcoming Stepping On classes that will teach seniors how to prevent falls.
"It is one of the best classes I've ever done for health education because you can see such a dramatic change in the participants in only a few short weeks," she said. "It's just enabling them to stay in their home longer because they're stronger and have better balance."
Roberta Matzke, 74, of Edgerton, echoes those remarks. She took the course in 2006 because she has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which causes shortness of breath.
She's practiced the strengthening exercises ever since and still is able to mow her lawn, shovel her snow and keep her independent lifestyle at home with her husband.
Matzke suffered a displaced fracture in her leg after falling off a ladder in 1998, never regaining all her mobility.
"The exercise program has brought it back to as close as I'm ever going to get to having normal knee function," she said.
She's had no falls since.
Stepping On is offered once a week for seven weeks.
Yes, seven weeks.
McMillan laughs about the length of the course but can rattle off all the aspects of falls the class covers, the strengthening exercises taught and the expert speakers the class offers.
Participants will learn and practice gentle strength and balance exercises, and ankle weights are provided. Pharmacists, police officers and physical therapists offer their expertise.
Before the class, Matzke was having trouble carrying a 14-pound bag of kitty litter because she'd run out of breath. Instructors taught her exercises, and "now I'm up to 28 pounds of cat litter," she said.
Stepping On is the work of Australian Dr. Lindy Clemson and was published in the September 2004 issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. At the end of the study, Clemson found those completing Stepping On experienced a 31 percent reduction in falls.
Wisconsin is the first state to use the program, McMillan said, and Rock County first started offering the class in 2006.
"I just thought it was wonderful," Matzke said.
Mar 25, 2009 at 11:36 p.m.
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Seniors should know by now that falling is bad. They are about to graduate and go into the real world. Whats next, telling them that fire is bad and to look both ways before crossing the street?
Mar 25, 2009 at 3:10 p.m.
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janesvillean: I think JAYT & coyote were just being facetious. Interesting stuff about tai chi, thanks for sharing that.
And your comment "correlation is not causation" is right on. I say that all the time, especially when people try to label pot as a so-called "gateway" drug. T'ain't true!
Mar 25, 2009 at 2:53 p.m.
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I used to have terrible coordination, until I learned tai chi (flowing movement exercise related to martial arts). It's important just to exercise, of course, and almost anything is better than nothing.
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JAYT, correlation is not causation. We don't know that the two statistics are connected.
Mar 25, 2009 at 12:36 p.m.
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Sounds like a worthwhile program.
Mar 25, 2009 at 12:34 p.m.
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But I always have beer with my sausage and cheese pizza.
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