News

By Mike Wood

Staff writer

Thursday, June 12 (4:30 p.m.): In Rossmoor, fall prevention has been a focus of educational programs and workshops. The flip side of falling – getting up again if you’ve fallen – was tackled in a pair of new Tice Creek Fitness Center workshops.

These workshops on May 20 and 27 came about after a suggestion by Rossmoor’s Low Vision Support Group, prompting trainer Nora Pallotta to develop the program. Pallotta served as primary instructor, while program coordinator Adam Cleary and trainer Ash Harrison demonstrated proper ways to get up from a fall, in situations when that is possible.

Each workshop was limited to 20 residents, allowing trainers plenty of time to work one-on-one with participants on how to get up, because each person’s health issues and problem areas are distinct.

The workshop covered ways to get up if you have fallen on your back, getting up using a chair or other furniture or without furniture, with help from a cane or from another person.

Because an individual may have problems with knees, hips, shoulders or other body parts, not every method is right for each person, Pallotta said.

“Different people have different things that are affecting their bodies, or they may have gotten injured in different cases,” Pallotta said. “We tried to offer a variety of different ways. We offered things that would be a little bit more leg heavy, things that might use their arms, ways to totally avoid the knees.”

The workshops are among several new offerings at the Fitness Center.

“Because we spend so much time on fall prevention, people are very focused on not falling,” Cleary said. “So, we don’t think to practice (getting up from falls) because we spend so much time preventing it.”

Statistics show that one in four Americans 65 or older fall each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There are about 3 million emergency room visits and around 1 million fall-related hospitalizations among older adults annually in the U.S., according to the CDC.

Falls are the No. 1 reason for calls to Securitas, said Tom Cashion, Rossmoor Walnut Creek (RWC) director of public safety. Through late May, there had been 251 falls reported to Securitas this year, and 58 of those required transportation to a hospital, Securitas Site Manager Steve Bertolozzi told the News.

Pallotta emphasizes that there are situations where one shouldn’t try to get up from a fall.

“If you do fall, there’s a lot of adrenaline going on in your body, and it’s not always safe to get up,” she told participants at the May 27 session.

She described a “head-to-toe” assessment in which a person who’s fallen checks their body systematically to see how everything feels and if they think they have a major injury before they even attempt to get up.

“You can do this yourself if you’re on your own,” Pallotta said. “If you have another person with you, they can help you with this before you get up.”

Particularly with head injuries, she said, it’s probably best to stay on the ground and wait for emergency help.

Residents were motivated to sign up for the workshop for a variety of reasons, Harrison said.

“Anyone who feels their balance may be at risk are the main people who have the most interest in it,” Harrison said. “But there are also people who, even though they can get off the ground effectively, they just want to know if they do get in a situation where they’re stuck on the ground, where they can go from there.”

Resident Rita Bustos said she signed up because she noticed she was tripping sometimes at home, though she hadn’t fallen. She found that the workshop provided good information.

“One fall can ruin the rest of your life,” Bustos said. “You don’t intend to fall, but if it happens, it happens like that, in an instant.”

The workshop finished with a review of exercises to strengthen muscles to help people be able to get up from a fall, such as leg lifts, mini crunches, an elevated push-up, hip bridges and going from a sitting position to standing.

Fitness and Aquatics Manager Jackie Carlisle said trainers and staff were pleased to see this topic come to reality as a workshop, as were participants.

“We got some good feedback where participants asked if we could go forward with some practice training sessions where they practice the exercises regularly for how to improve,” Carlisle said.

There might be more workshops to come, as other trainers have expressed interest in the concept, which may be developed into something for the annual falls prevention conference, Carlisle said.