Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Last week on iHeart.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Since for more than thirty years, it's been a punchline.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I've fallen and I can get up.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
But it's not just an advertising gimmick or a comedy sketch.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
It happens every day here in the Tri.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
State Police scanner is pushing out calls for a lifticist
or for help for those who've been injured in a fall.
We see it in the iheartnewsroom from the Corners report
every week the cause of death.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Fall Falls are not a normal part of aging.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Stephanie Lambers is my guest from Try Health, an occupational
therapist with information on free classes offered to residents and caregivers.
Chalk full of information about fall prevention, strength training, and
how medications add to the problem. We'll tell you how
you can sign up for this free class starting soon
and later. The Down Syndrome Association of Greater Cincinnati's Buddy
(00:50):
Walk is September sixth at Sawyer Point along the banks
of the Mighty Ohio River in Cincinnati. My guest, Chrissy Vincent,
and one of their interns are here to preview the
one mile fundraising event. Chalk full of fun and food
and entertainment celebrating our loved ones with Down syndrome. Now
on iHeart Cincy with Sandy Collins. Welcome in Stephanie Lambers
(01:14):
from Try Health, an occupational therapist, is here to talk
about a program that they've got coming up that caught
my eye in the Blue Ash newsletter. Stephanie First, welcome
to you to iHeart Cincy, our public affairs show. Let's
talk about Try Health and their program Stepping On Fall
Prevention to try to figure out what it is that
you want folks to know about falls and how they
can be prevented.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Okay, great, thanks for having me on here. And this
Stepping On program is an evidence based fall prevention program
and it's actually proven to reduce falls by thirty one
percent if you add on to people participating in the program,
which I'll describe further, If someone also chooses to make
(01:57):
some updates to their home to make their home safe,
or whether it's a grab bar, whether it's having a
better texture on a surface, or tread strips on stairs,
whatever it is, you can actually even improve to reducing
your fall risk by forty percent if you have these
things in your home and participate in this program. So
it's an amazing program seven weeks, two hours a week.
(02:19):
Lots of experts involved in the program. We have guest
experts from pharmacy, physical therapy, occupational therapy as well as
we have vision experts from CAVE, which is Cincinnati Association
for Blind and Visually Impaired. They know how to work
with seniors with lower vision and vision conditions and do
(02:42):
a great job of educating about reducing fall risk. The
balance and strength exercises that we do are such a
key component of the program. You know, we start those
right off the bat the first day so that everybody
can you get a handle on doing those and a
lot of them are even just being able to get
(03:03):
ourselves from to stand, just walking sideway sideway stepping. Then
we always related to function because we want people to
know from the minute we start working with them that
we want them to be able to take charge, feel
more empowered, to be able to do whatever it is
in their everyday life to help reduce falls. And if
(03:24):
by doing these exercises, that's one thing, that's great.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
So let's step back to really who is it risk
at falling? If you're an older person listening to this
and you can define in your own mind what you
think is older. But if you're an older person, think
about this. You might be thinking about it for yourself,
or maybe for your parents or your grandparents. If you're
a little bit younger, you may not think it applies
to you. But I want to put some kind of
(03:48):
thoughts in your head about falls. When we think about falls,
often we think about the funny commercial I've fallen in
I can't get up.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Well, let me tell you something, Stephanie.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
I listen to scanners all day long in the newsroom,
and I cannot tell you enough how many calls the
fire departments and the EMTs get for people who have
fallen and they can't get up, They can't function, they
can't take care of themselves. And so that really is
kind of an astonishing thought that more people are falling
(04:20):
and there's no one that they can call. They can't
get up by themselves. So your program will help people
get stronger. And the other thing is too, is if
you're taking care of someone who would be prone to falling,
for example, you've got an older family member, but maybe
they're just fine. I think now is the time, don't
you think, Stephanie, that now is the time for you
to start thinking about that, looking at the clutter in
(04:42):
their home, looking at their mobility, looking at their reaction
to medications. All those things I think are something that
caregivers should look at now so it doesn't just creep
up on you and then you're startled as to somebody
has fallen and they've broken a hip, they've broken an arm,
they've hurt their head or worse.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Exactly. Yeah, I mean being proactive, you know, taking charge
of this situation. You know, none of us wants to
be in a situation where let's say we have a
nasty fall and for some reason we're hospitalized, whether that's
a hip fracture or broken arm, whatever it is, and
then next thing, you know, someone else, if it's a
family member or someone else, having to make decisions. Okay,
(05:26):
you need to get some things put in place in
your home to help you be safer within the home environment.
You know, all of us would rather be able to
control that ourselves, where we're making decisions ahead of time.
You know, today we're listening to this on the radio
and we're saying, hey, I want to do what I
can to take charge, because it's important for us to
(05:46):
realize that falls actually are the leading cause of injury
related death for people age sixty five and older, and
also one in four older adults fall. So that's some
pretty you know, heavy statistics there. But another important one
for us to realize is that falls are not a
(06:08):
normal part of aging because I think so many times
people think, well, oh I fell, It's just because I'm
getting older, and you know, that's just something that's going
to happen, and actually that is not the case. There's
a lot that we can do. There's a lot that's
covered in this program that helps us to build what's
called our self efficacy or our self effectiveness, being able
(06:31):
to know how to take charge with you know, maybe
I want to go to a show somewhere. Okay, So
if I'm going to go to that show, what's going
to be my path of least resistance in regards to
where I'm going to park, you know, the safest way
to get from that to the show. When I get
to the show, what's the safest way for me to
get to where my seat is. You know, sometimes it's
(06:53):
just a matter of if we can learn to problem
solve and think ahead through things in our everyday life,
then we can see much more opportunity versus a lot
of times what happens people develop a fear of falling.
You know, once you have a fall, the chances of
you developing this vicious cycle of what we call the
fear of falling are so great. And with the fear
(07:16):
of falling. Once a person falls, then that fear of
falling can mess with their head a little bit, mess
with their confidence to the point where maybe they don't
want to get out in the community anymore, Maybe they
are losing their confidence. Maybe it makes them not want
to go do this social connection and interaction with friends
with something they're doing in the community. And if you're
not doing that, that's not good either. Because social isolation
(07:40):
is a huge issue we have, you know, actually in
our society in general, but particularly as we age. It's
even more of a problem. Back in the dark days
of the pandemic, that's something we learned, but unfortunately it's
still the case even now. There's a fair amount of
people that still are dealing with that. And there also
is a connection between social isolation and an increase in
(08:01):
your fall risk. And I think part of that is
with that whole fear of falling, you know, our mobility
gets more limited, we don't want to get out as much,
we're not socializing, and then it just becomes this whole
Oh no, I'm not connecting with people. Oh no, I'm
getting weaker and not as able to care for myself.
But if we can just learn to take charge, you know,
(08:22):
treat preventing false like we would any other condition, whether
that's diabetes or cardiovascular disease, whatever it is. If we
can look at this as a health issue that we
need to take charge of and address in our life,
will be such egene type of people. You know, Well,
we're just like enjoying as we're getting on in years
with aging versus being concerned about it or concerned about falling.
(08:46):
So I think that's just such a big thing with it.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
My guest today is Stephanie Lambert.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
She's an occupational therapist with TRY Health, with information about
free classes that are available for residents about fall prevention
and tai chi how to make yourself strong. For folks,
it may not think that that really happens a lot.
It actually happened in my life. My landlady became socially
isolated because of COVID and started getting weaker.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
She started falling.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
She started calling me to come help her, and I
was able to once get her up. She told me
another time that she fell it took her an hour
to try to get up off of her off of
her floor at seventy nine years old. And then eventually
she called again and said I've fallen and I said,
all right, I'll be right up. And I couldn't get
her up this time because of the way she was laying,
(09:37):
and then her bedroom and there.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Were his furniture in the way.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Had to call the squad and they took her to
the hospital. When they told her, you know, you need
more stimulation, you need more exercise, you need to declutter
your home, these things. And I watched it happen right
before my very eyes. And she eventually went to an
nursing home because she refused the help, and Stephanie, she
(10:04):
got COVID in the nursing home and she didn't make
I mean, it was literally the most tragic story. And
that's why I really want to encourage people to think
about this stuff in advance. You just don't know when
it's going to happen to someone you know, your family member,
or yourself.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
One more self indulgent story.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
I fell and broke my wrist a year and a
half ago walking the dog in the neighborhood, and talk
about feeling debilitated. You know, you're just walking the dog
and all of a sudden, you think you're just going
to bounce back like you did when you were fifteen,
and you just, you know, bounce off the concrete. And
that was a year and fifteen hundred dollars worth of
pain financially, you know, and lost mobility. So you know,
(10:45):
this is something that all of us face, and I'm
really glad that tri Health has these programs to help
people prevent this, beware of it. And then also for
the caregivers, let's talk about the classes that are coming
up so that folks know where they are and how
we can be involved in them. And if there's any
costs involved, no.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
That's great. So the Stepping On program, we have one
of those actually coming up at Good Samaritan Western Ridge
and that'll be September ninth through October twenty first. A
couple other places we have programs coming up, the Blue
Ash Fire Department on ken Wood Road in the Blue
Ash area. That class starts September fourth and goes to
(11:27):
October sixteenth, and then a slightly different program we have
that's also in the fall prevention realm is the tai
Chi for Health program, and we have one of those
coming up September eleventh through October thirtieth. Taichi has many
benefits as well. That program is actually an eight week
program an hour every week. By participating in Taichi, people
(11:51):
can significantly improve their balance, their leg strength, reduce that
fear of falling, just get their mobility going, get that
confident that's going, and all of that again is so
important as we look at like you said, as we
enter fall, we want to realize that when we're thinking
about fall lean this is a year round type of
(12:13):
a thing that we need to think about. Okay, it's
not a weather dependent or seasonal dependent type of a thing.
It is year round every day, you know, whether it's summer, fall, winter, spring,
whatever it is. It's something we need to think about
in a positive way that we're taking charge of it versus,
you know, letting it cause us problems in our life
(12:34):
and impact our health in a negative way.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Now, these are daytime classes, folks, So if you are
still working, you may want to take a late lunch
if you have to or take some time. But the
Stepping On Fall Prevention classes are on Thursdays. There's seven
of them and it runs from two to four in
the afternoon in Blue Ash. Then the Stepping On Fall
Prevention Good Sand Western Ridge that is ten to noon
(13:00):
on Tuesdays starting on the ninth, and then the final
one starting on September eleventh, This is from one to
two in the afternoon in Mason.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
That's the tai Chi classes. So what about.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Costs and are there costs involved and is their insurance
accepted and what happens there, Stephanie.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
These classes are free of charge. They are a community
benefit of try Health. Try Health is committed to reducing
falls impact in our community and we have had a
concerted effort and particularly all the way going back to
twenty fourteen with the Stepping On program that we have
connected with the fire and the EMS community to do
(13:39):
whatever we can to build these programs out. We also
connect with a lot of our TRY Health physicians in
primary care in the Tri Health TPP area, a lot
of them when they see their older patients, maybe those
sixty five and older for a Medicare wellness visit or
their Welcome to Medicare visit. We connect a lot of
(14:01):
the physicians are getting these classes and other programming connecting
to fall prevention specifically for their patients. Because again, as
a system Try Health, you know, that's one of our
big pillar goals is to reduce falls. And that's another
big one we have with our connection to the community
is whatever we can do for our seniors in the
community to reduce falls as well.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Stephanie Lambers, thank you from Trying Health, occupational therapist and
heads up stepping on fall prevention, trying to eliminate fall
hazards in your home and strengthening yourself and understanding how
your medication and your nutritional play a role in preventing falls,
which can be deadly. Thanks so much for your time today, Stephanie, thanks.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
For having me. Have a great day.