Program aimed to reduce fall inside homes

Public health nurse Carol Goodall poses at a Quinte Gardens townhouse to demonstrate that safety can look attractive. Goodall, who works for Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit, is in charge of a program called Simply Safer is Simply Smarter, to encourage homeowners to make changes to prevent falls in the home. Things like a lower Island counter top and flush threshold between the hardwood and linoleum floors. Photo by Linda Horn

By Linda Horn

The Hasting and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit launched a campaign to reduce falls in the home to help families prevent injuries recently through its “Simply Safer is Simply Smarter” program.

Injuries from falls cost Ontario $2.1 billion based on statistics from 2004. The local health unit joined with three others – Haliburton, Kawartha Pine Ridges District and Durham Region and Peterborough – to encourage people when they build or renovate their home to look for ways to make their home safer to prevent falls from happening.

Fall-related injuries are really a significant cost both individuals, families and society, said Carol Goodall public health nurse with the local health unit.

“In every home there are inherent design flaws,” Goodall said.

The potential to fall hides in many places. From carpet to linoleum floor to a simple bump can be hazardous for any member, not just seniors or babies.

Another flaw are some stairs with a high step or a small thread, said Goodall.

“People’s feet are bigger than they used to be,” she said.

Another place to be careful is the bathroom. One way to help prevent falls is grab bars in the shower or tub. But, as Goodall suggests, sometime getting people to make this easy step towards safety is a tough one.

“When you ask people of a certain age to put grab bars in their bathrooms, it is often in response to that they are sick, elderly, or becoming frail. People are reluctant.  It concedes frailty: I am losing my independence. In fact, that is not what it means. It means: I am smart enough to make my home safer,” Goodall explains.

The health unit is combating this by encouraging specialized medical suppliers of decorative grab bars to stock popular hardware and plumbing supplies stores.

“If you’re 60 and your building a bathroom you’re not likely to go to a home-care store. If you could go to a more mainstream store and see those bath bars, you are more likely to do it,” Goodall said.

In Hastings and Prince Edward counties falls accounted for 13,500 emergency visits in 2007 to 2008. There were more than 800 hospitalizations. Five thousand of these visits were adults over the age of 55.

Murray Jackson, owner of Quinte Gardens Retirement residences in Belleville, agrees with Goodall. He said they take extra safety measures to prevent falls in the residence’s new townhomes.

Already he has reduced the height of steps, lowered counters and other items to help residents.

Don Newton, a resident at Quinte Garden, said he was pleased with the extra safety precautions.

“They made a big difference that they were there,” he said.

Goodall also said it is another reason young homeowners should think about the future and update safety features in their home.

“Sometimes, the house that is built by a young couple for your first house is the house an older couple will retire to. Having extras like reinforced walls in the bathroom for a grab bar will make you house more marketable,” she said.