From emily at tcaging.org Mon Jul 6 07:20:19 2009 From: emily at tcaging.org (Emily Farah-Miller) Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 07:20:19 -0500 Subject: [Fallsprevention] MNFP Listserv - July 6 Message-ID: <80B2A7179839464CB92F45D5F4BC8FB02AE057A7A4@exch.tcaging.org> 47,000 Older Adults Treated in Emergency Departments Annually for Fall Injuries Related to Walkers and Canes >From 2001 to 2006, an average of 129 Americans ages 65 and older were treated in emergency departments each day-a total of more than 47,000 each year-for injuries from falls that involved walkers and canes, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study published this month in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The study, which examined six years of emergency department medical records, found that, for older adults that had falls related to walkers- or canes, most of the injuries involved walkers (87 percent). People were seven times more likely to be injured in a fall with a walker as with a cane. Older women sustained more than three out of four walker-related injuries (78 percent) and two out of three cane-related injuries (66 percent). ?Walking aids are very important in helping many older adults maintain their mobility. However, it?s important to make sure people use these devices safely,? said Judy Stevens, Ph.D., the study?s lead author. ?Walkers are often used by frail and vulnerable older adults; people for whom falls, if they occur, can have very serious health consequences.? For more information, please visit: http://www.cdc.gov/media/pressrel/2009/r090629.htm ------------------------ EyeCare America Offers Free Eye Care to America's Elderly EyeCare America, a non-profit public service program of the Foundation of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, is offering no-cost medical eye care to qualified seniors. The program runs until August 31. EyeCare America's Senior EyeCare Program is designed for U.S. citizens or legal residents who are 65 years of age or older and have not seen an ophthalmologist in three or more years. They must also not belong to a health maintenance organization (HMO) or the Veterans Administration. The program includes a comprehensive eye exam and care for any disease detected in the initial visit for up to one year following the exam. For seniors without an ophthalmologist, care will be provided at no out-of-pocket cost. To learn more about this program, visit http://www.eyecareamerica.org/eyecare/care/senior-eyecare.cfm ------------------------ Minnesota Council of Nonprofits & Minnesota Council on Foundations 2009 Joint Annual Conference 2009 is a time of retooling and transformation for nonprofits, grantmakers, and the public and private sectors. As your organization makes decisions for its future, you face critical choices about how to be nimble, effective and efficient in achieving your mission. At the MCN/MCF Joint Annual Conference, you?ll assemble practical tools to transform your organization. Whether its re-engineering communications, management, human resources or financial systems, you?ll learn what?s essential and effective, how to be responsive yet results-oriented, and ways to thrive as you refocus on pursuing your mission. For more information, please visit: http://www.transformingourwork.org/ ------------------------ Non-profit Management Training and Technical Assistance RFP Eligible faith-based and community-based organizations working to meet a variety of critical human needs in the seven county metro area are encouraged to submit an application for wide ranging capacity building training and technical assistance. For more information, please visit: http://www.gmcc.org/grantopportunitiesmain.html ------------------------ The Minnesota Falls Prevention Listserv is a vehicle for sharing information related to the Minnesota Falls Prevention Initiative, led by the MN Board on Aging in partnership with the MN Department of Human Services, MN Department of Health and numerous public and private organizations. The Minnesota Falls Prevention Listserv is comprised of 340+ individuals throughout Minnesota, please use this resource to share information and access the expertise of those professionals subscribed to the listserv. To post to the listserv, send your message to: fallsprevention at mailman.stpaul.visi.com To subscribe (or unsubscribe) to the listserv, please visit: http://mailman.stpaul.visi.com/mailman/listinfo/fallsprevention Keep Minnesotans Right Side Up! Learn the easy ways we can reduce falls for Minnesotans, please visit the Minnesota Falls Prevention website at: http://www.mnfallsprevention.org/ ------------------------ Emily Farah-Miller Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging 2365 N McKnight Rd North Saint Paul, MN 55109 Phone: 651-245-2927 Fax: 651-641-8618 emily at tcaging.org www.tcaging.org www.mnfallsprevention.org Caution: This e-mail and attached documents, if any, may contain information that is protected by state or federal law. E-mail containing private or protected information should not be sent over a public (nonsecure) Internet unless it is encrypted pursuant to Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging, Inc. standards. This e-mail should be forwarded only on a strictly need-to-know basis. If you are not the intended recipient, please: (1) notify the sender immediately, (2) do not forward the message, (3) do not print the message and (4) erase the message from your system. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mailman.stpaul.visi.com/pipermail/fallsprevention/attachments/20090706/696f2bab/attachment.htm From emily at tcaging.org Sat Jul 11 15:11:39 2009 From: emily at tcaging.org (Emily Farah-Miller) Date: Sat, 11 Jul 2009 15:11:39 -0500 Subject: [Fallsprevention] MNFP Listserv - July 13 Message-ID: <80B2A7179839464CB92F45D5F4BC8FB02AE057A810@exch.tcaging.org> Impact of Exercise in Community-Dwelling Older Adults Concern has been expressed that preventive measures in older people might increase frailty by increasing survival without improving health. We investigated the impact of exercise on the probabilities of health improvement, deterioration and death in community-dwelling older people. For more information, please visit: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0006174 ------------------------ Older Men With Bladder Issues At Risk Of Falling Elderly men with moderate or severe bladder problems are at increased risk of suffering a fall, new research suggests. For more information, please visit: http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2009/07/10/eline/links/20090710elin022.html ------------------------ The Home Environment & Disability in Older Adults The home environment has become widely recognized as an important factor in influencing the daily functioning and physical abilities of older adults. In fact, the relationship between the home and disability has become an important public health problem, because the majority of older adults live in private households and those age 80 and over spend the majority of their time in the home. Often, home modifications are made to reduce the risk and impact of falls. Interestingly, home modification research only finds limited support that this happens. Rather, the research literature suggests that the benefits of home modification lie in its ability to reduce disability, not falls. A recent review of the home modification literature found that most research on the home environment concludes that a consensus has emerged suggesting that improvements to the home environment will increase physical functioning and delay the onset of disability. However, that this increased functioning did not reduce falls; only the long-term impact of them. Additionally, the research literature points out that the known gain in physical functioning can be increased when the design of home environments is matched to the needs of individual residents. Questions remain as to why home modifications can reduce disability but not necessarily falls. One explanation is that falls are seldom and seemingly random events, whereas physical functioning and disability entails everyday interaction with the home environment. Source: Wahl, H., Fange, A., Oswald, F., Gitlin, L., Iwarsson, S. 2009. The home environment and disability-related outcomes in aging individuals: What is the empirical evidence? The Gerontologist 49(3): 355-367. For more information, please visit: http://www.matherlifeways.com/aia07_09/disability.html ------------------------ Active for Life: Translation of Physical Activity Programs for Mid-Life and Older Adults, 2003-2007 Sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Active for Life (AFL) initiative investigated how two physical activity programs for adults aged 50 and older, Active Choices (AC) and Active Living Every Day (ALED), worked in community settings. For more information, please visit: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/HMCA/STUDY/24723.xml ------------------------ Web-Based Training Pilot Program for Senior Medication Management Needs Your Help! Telling seniors about how and why they should safely take their medicines is extremely important. The Administration on Aging and the Health Resources Services Administration have developed a web-based education program to prevent older adults from being poisoned due to accidental misuse and interactions with their medicines. The program, Taking Your Medicines Safely, is designed to be administered by senior center personnel to interested seniors in their Center. The one hour web-based program covers: 1) potential problems of taking prescription medicines with over-the-counter products; 2) ways to keep track of medicines; and 3) questions seniors should ask about their medicines. The program needs to be reviewed and finalized before it can be made available nationally. You know what works best with your population so your input is invaluable. Please visit the website and supply your feedback on the program between July 17th and July 31st. The website is http://66.92.20.174/MedicineSafely/. The password for the website is safely01. ------------------------ Falls Prevention Resource List 2009 Complied by Saskatoon Health Region. Contains a variety of fall prevention resources. For more information, please visit: http://fallspreventioncoalition.blogharbor.com/_attachments/4225220/fp_falls-prevention-resource-list%202009.pdf ------------------------ 2009 Minnesota Age and Disabilities Odyssey conference August 17-19, 2009 Mayo Civic Center Rochester, MN For more information, please visit: http://www.mnaging.org/odyssey/index.html ------------------------ Transforming Depression Care: The DIAMOND Program A Symposium on Improving Outcomes and Lowering The Cost of Care for Patients with Depression Oct. 5, 2009, 8:30 a.m. -3:30 p.m. Hilton Airport Hotel, Bloomington, MN For more information, please visit: http://www.icsi.org/calendar/calendar_special_events/transforming_depression_care__the_diamond_program.html ------------------------ Creating an Environment for Change Moving Patients from Thinking to DOING A conference presented by Fairview Physician Associates (FPA) in partnership with Medica Wednesday, Nov. 4 DoubleTree Hotel, Minneapolis-Park Place For health care professionals, leaders, educators and others interested in promoting patient self-care and sustainable lifestyle change. Inspired by FPA's CAN DO weight loss and healthy lifestyle program. Learning objectives: 1) Explore obstacles/barriers to sustainable change; 2) Identify and apply tools and strategies to assist professional caregivers in helping patients make sustainable changes to their appetite, activity and attitude to stay healthy. For more information, please visit: http://www.fpanetwork.org/healthylifestyle/index.asp ------------------------ The Minnesota Falls Prevention Listserv is a vehicle for sharing information related to the Minnesota Falls Prevention Initiative, led by the MN Board on Aging in partnership with the MN Department of Human Services, MN Department of Health and numerous public and private organizations. The Minnesota Falls Prevention Listserv is comprised of 340+ individuals throughout Minnesota, please use this resource to share information and access the expertise of those professionals subscribed to the listserv. To post to the listserv, send your message to: fallsprevention at mailman.stpaul.visi.com To subscribe (or unsubscribe) to the listserv, please visit: http://mailman.stpaul.visi.com/mailman/listinfo/fallsprevention Keep Minnesotans Right Side Up! Learn the easy ways we can reduce falls for Minnesotans, please visit the Minnesota Falls Prevention website at: http://www.mnfallsprevention.org/ ------------------------ Emily Farah-Miller Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging 2365 N McKnight Rd North Saint Paul, MN 55109 Phone: 651-245-2927 Fax: 651-641-8618 emily at tcaging.org www.tcaging.org www.mnfallsprevention.org Caution: This e-mail and attached documents, if any, may contain information that is protected by state or federal law. E-mail containing private or protected information should not be sent over a public (nonsecure) Internet unless it is encrypted pursuant to Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging, Inc. standards. This e-mail should be forwarded only on a strictly need-to-know basis. If you are not the intended recipient, please: (1) notify the sender immediately, (2) do not forward the message, (3) do not print the message and (4) erase the message from your system. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mailman.stpaul.visi.com/pipermail/fallsprevention/attachments/20090713/83e081d4/attachment-0001.htm