Is Your Loved One at Risk for Falls?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every second of every day an adult 65 years of age and older falls, making falls the number one cause of injuries and deaths from injury. The team at Qualicare wants you to know how to tell if your loved one is at risk of falling.

Prevent Falls for Your Loved One

The best way to prevent a fall is to be aware of the things that put your loved one at risk of falling in the first place.

For starters, many medications can increase a person’s fall risk. Therefore, before your loved one takes any medication, it’s important to talk to their doctor or pharmacist to discuss the fall risk associated with the medication and to decide what can be done to help avoid any side effects that may cause dizziness.

Additionally, muscle weakness begins to occur in our loved ones (and ourselves) during the aging process. Since muscle weakness tends to happen more in the legs, it puts a person more at risk for falling. As a result, if your loved one begins showing signs of muscle weakness and needs to use a walker, etc., then it might be time to ask for additional help to ensure they are as safe as possible.

Finally, as we age, so does our eyesight. As a result, worsening vision problems can increase the risk of falling. Therefore, it’s important for the elderly to continue seeing an eye doctor on a regular basis so that conditions like weakening eyesight, cataracts and glaucoma (which can all affect balance) are diagnosed at the earliest stage possible.

Fortunately, enlisting the help of caregivers like the professionals at Qualicare can help prevent falls from happening to your loved one.

Is your loved one at risk of falling? Allow our team members to help you in caring for your loved one to ensure falls don’t happen. Visit the Qualicare website today to learn about our 360-degree approach to care when it comes to providing services for you and your loved one and assisting in preventing falls from occurring.