September News: Free Falls Check-Up | |
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Falls among older adults continue to be a national public health concern.
Join us Sept. 23-27, 2024, for Falls Prevention Awareness Week, a nationwide observance with state coalitions and partners to raise awareness on preventing falls, reducing the risk of falls, and helping older adults live without fear of falling.
Falls are not a natural part of aging.
Even if you’re healthy or have talked with your health care provider, it’s important to check your risk. There are many steps you can take to prevent a fall. Answer 13 simple questions to get your falls risk score and resources to prevent falls.
To take your falls free checkup, click: https://www.ncoa.org/tools/falls-free-checkup
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Make Your Home Safe: 5 Easy Ways to Avoid Falling | | |
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Thousands of older adults fall at home each year due to common household hazards. Make sure your home is safe and help prevent falls by following a few easy tips:
- Clear the way. Remove tripping hazards, like throw rugs, cords, or clutter on the floor. Move furniture to create a path for safe movement.
- Light it up. Replace lightbulbs with bright, non-glare bulbs to help you see around the house.
- Have a seat. Place a chair in your bedroom so you can sit while getting dressed or putting shoes on.
- Secure some support. Buy a shower seat, grab bar, and an adjustable height handheld showerhead to make bathing easier.
- Store for success. Keep frequently used items between waist and shoulder height, making them easier to access without the need for a stepstool or unsafe reaching.
For an extensive home safety checklist, click here: https://www.ncoa.org/adviser/sleep/home-safety-older-adults/#toc-printable-checklist\
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Prevent Falls through Exercise | |
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Anyone of any age or ability can get stronger and improve their balance but, for older adults, staying strong and having good balance are especially important.
Why? Because staying strong and practicing balance skills are critical to managing your fall risk.
The stronger your legs, the better your balance - reducing the likelihood you fall or experience an injury. Research shows that certain exercises are better for improving your strength and balance. Consider adding the below exercises to your daily routine; the best part is they can be done anywhere, anytime, anyplace!
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What are the exercises that older adults can do to help with strength and balance?
Before you start any new exercise, it’s always a good idea to consult with your doctor . Also, please take care to make sure you are doing the exercises safely and correctly. For the best results, the exercises should feel somewhat challenging.
Below are exercise videos to help you strengthen your leg muscles and improve your balance. It is always a good idea to stand near something sturdy to hold on to, such as a kitchen counter, and have a chair nearby to sit and rest.
Exercise videos that are good for leg strength:
Exercise videos that are good for improving balance:
Remember:
- Start by doing each exercise five to 10 times.
- Take a short rest (one minute or less) in between exercises.
- Once you have completed the exercises you can be done or repeat the sequence.
- Work up to doing each exercise 10 times, twice a day.
- When starting a new balance exercise, hold on with two hands. When you feel confident in your balance, try holding on lightly with a few fingertips on each hand. Then use only one hand. As your balance skills improve, and you feel steady, you may be able to progress using no hands.
Some muscle soreness is normal, your body is telling you those muscles worked. This is a normal response to challenging exercise. But soreness should not limit your ability to do your daily activities. If it does, this means you may have done too much. Progressing the number of times you do each exercise slowly, and checking how you feel the next day, will help you manage muscle soreness.
For more information, click here: https://www.ncoa.org/article/what-exercises-can-help-you-prevent-a-fall
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Calcium, Vitamin D, and Bone Health: Get the Facts | |
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No matter your age, it’s never too early or too late to take steps to protect yourself from broken bones.
Each year about a third of all people over age 65 will fall. Many of these falls result in a broken bone, often the hip or wrist. Broken bones at any age can be painful, difficult to heal, and cause life-long challenges affecting your activities and independence.
Getting enough calcium and vitamin D can help build and keep strong, healthy bones — healthy bones help minimize the fracture risk from falls.
Calcium is a mineral that is necessary for life. In addition to building bones and keeping them healthy, calcium enables our blood to clot, our muscles to contract, and our heart to beat. Our bodies cannot produce its own calcium. That’s why it’s important to get enough calcium from the food we eat. When we don’t get the calcium our body needs, it is taken from our bones. This imbalance causes bones get weak and easier to break.
How much calcium do we need?
Women 51+ and men 71+ need 1,200 mg/daily.
Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin and plays an important role in protecting your bones, both by helping your body absorb calcium and by supporting muscles needed to avoid falls. Children need vitamin D to build strong bones, and adults need it to keep their bones strong and healthy.
How much Vitamin D do we need?
Women and men 50+ and over need 800-1,000 IU daily.
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Overcoming Roadblocks to Healthy Eating | |
- Trying to eat healthy on a budget?
- Tired of cooking or eating alone?
- Problems chewing or swallowing food?
- Physical problems making it hard to eat?
- Food tastes different?
- Just not hungry?
- Food allergies or dietary restrictions?
Healthy eating can help feel better overall, provide your essential vitamins, minerals and protein for a healthy body and possibly decrease your chances of getting certain diseases.
Making smart food choices is important at any age. But eating healthy can be difficult even if you know which foods you should buy and prepare. Your budget, physical issues, mood changes, and dietary restrictions can be roadblocks to eating food that’s best for you.
Click button below for suggestions on how to deal with common problems that can make it harder to follow through on smart food choices:
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GetSetUp: FREE Online Classes on Fall Prevention | |
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We’ve selected a variety of online fall prevention courses for you through GetSetUp, an organization created by older adults, to help people 55+ learn new skills, connect with others, and unlock new life experiences.
All those 60+ are welcome and workshops are free when using passcode "area4-ca".
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Exercise to Improve Balance and Stability
Explore foundational movements to enhance your balance and stability safely. This beginner class introduces gentle exercises tailored for those new to balance training. This class covers an introduction to basic balance exercises, techniques to improve stability, and safety tips for balance training.
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Yoga for Flexibility and Balance
Enjoy a gentle class to increase balance and relaxation. Learners will experience the benefits of yoga poses according to their own level of flexibility. This class will demonstrate pose variations that can be done standing, using a chair, or on the floor.
This class covers how to enjoy a calming, relaxing, gentle stretch, yoga poses that can help with balance, and how to increase flexibility.
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Stay Safe at Home: Fall Risk and Prevention Strategies
Take control of your safety with essential fall risk and prevention techniques. In this class, we will review the impacts aging has on fall risk, other risk factors, and how to prevent falls.
This class covers fall statistics and their impact on health, risk factors in and out of the home, and fall prevention.
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Slow & Steady: Improve Balance, Reduce Injury Risk
Do you want to improve your balance, reduce the risk of injury, and feel more confident in your movements? This class will focus on exercises that build stability, strength, and flexibility—so you can use them every day. This class covers exercises that will make your body stronger and more stable, increase flexibility in muscles needed for balance, and decrease the risk of falls.
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ADRCs:
Building the Infrastructure We Need for the Future | | |
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California is strengthening its Aging and Disability Resource Connection network to respond to the growing need for social services for older adults. AAA4 is further strengthening the five ADRCs partnered with the agency by adding CalAIM Community Supports.
Community Transition Services/Nursing Facility Transition to a Home is an established service for ADRC Independent Living Center partners, but is a newer service area for Agencies on Aging. Through a contract with Anthem Health Plan, AAA4 Case Manager Sofia Terrazas will help their members residing in Nursing Homes in Sacramento County return to living in the community.
If you or a family member would like support to move from facility-based care to a community setting, AAA4 and the ADRC partners can help.
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Healthy Eating = Healthy Aging | |
Yogurt Parfait
Nutrition can play an important role in fall prevention. Choose foods rich in calcium to support bone health. Combine high calcium foods with foods that contain Vitamin D for better absorption. A great way to get your daily dose of calcium is to incorporate various yogurt in your diet such as Low-fat yogurt, Greek yogurt, coconut milk yogurt and many more. Click the recipe below to try this delicious Yogurt parfait. .
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Cold Brew Iced Tea
Stay hydrated to prevent low blood pressure dizziness and fatigue. Skip buying bottled iced tea from the store and make some yourself. Unsweetened tea is healthier for you, and you'll save money by making this easy recipe! Check out the recipe below to make your own cold brew iced tea.
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Coastal Blackberry Salmon Salad
Vitamin D is a great supplement to support bone health and may help to reduce your risk of falls. Some foods rich in vitamin D are fatty fish, mushrooms, and fortified foods. This week try this blackberry salmon salad to incorporate vitamin D in your diet.
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Meals on Wheels: Delivering More Than Just a Meal | |
Attention Yuba and Sutter Counties!
Did you know? Agency on Aging Area 4 oversees Meals on Wheels Yuba Sutter. The home-delivered meal program provides meals to program participants who are homebound, physically or mentally frail, or are in need of meals either because they cannot prepare food for themselves.
Our Meals on Wheels Yuba & Sutter Counties meals are delivered to program participant's doors with the help of team of dedicated staff and volunteers.
Meals are prepared fresh by local restaurants, and delivered cold. All meals are nutritionally balanced, pre-approved by a registered dietitian and designed for older adult's needs.
Learn more! Click button to visit their website. Subscribe to their newsletter by clicking button below to be the first to hear about news and events — including an upcoming Food Truck Fundraiser happening in happening in Yuba and Sutter counties — and how you can get involved!
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Do you receive SSI? Don’t miss out on food benefits! | | |
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Food prices have increased significantly in recent years. It makes it difficult for many of us—especially older adults—to keep eating well.
Fortunately, CalFresh has allocated funds specifically for adults aged 60+. We simplify the application process for them.
Learn more and start your application today.
Click button below or call us at
1-800-211-4545
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What is Aging & Disability Resource Connection (ADRC)?
An ADRC is a network of organizations that work together to make access to services easier for older adults, people with disabilities, and family care providers. We are here to support you in finding resources and exploring your community options for living independently.
We can help you stay in your home, remain connected to your community, make a smooth transition from hospital to home, and access caregiver resources or respite care.
How can an ADRC help you?
- By providing in-person, phone, or online information about a wide range of services and resources.
- By presenting options for long-term services and support so that informed choices can be made about care planning.
- By offering short-term services to address urgent needs and prevent unnecessary admission to a nursing facility or hospital.
- By coordinating relocation from hospitals or nursing facilities back to a home or the community and arranging for needed support.
ADRCs are transforming the way people access community resources.
Get help today!
CALL: (800) 211-4545
EMAIL: cm@agencyonaging4.org
WEB: www.adrc4.org
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Workshops for Healthy Aging | |
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Agency on Aging Area 4 hosts free virtual and in-person workshops for the older adult community in Sacramento, Nevada, Placer, Sierra, Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba Counties.
Whether you’re interested in nutrition, health promotion or job readiness we have the classes for you!
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For the latest news on healthy aging, follow us on social media! | |
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This material was funded by USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - SNAP. This institution is an equal opportunity provider. The materials or product were a result of a project funded by a contract with the California Department of Aging.
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