welcome back to River City alive we are
just wrapping up fall prevention
Awareness Month and here to tell us more
and with some kind of staggering
statistics Brittany Schneider and dr.
Marla rivers of Cora physical therapy
thanks for joining us ladies let's talk
about those statistics right off the bat
yes thanks for having us well you're
very welcome because it's it's alarming
the Year how much damage is done to
people through following every single
year yes Falls and fall related injuries
are a serious problem 30% of people over
the age of 65 and 50% of people over the
age of 80 sustained a fall annually and
then we're talking broken hips broken
bones and sometimes even worse
absolutely and the cost of it is
astounding as well it is estimated that
in the by the year of 2020 the estimated
costs for Falls and related injuries to
Falls would be 67 billion and you're
here to tell us a little bit about ways
to prevent Falls and Brittany at Quora
first of all what does Cora do so Cora
is an outpatient rehabilitation center
we have 12 locations in Jacksonville and
we treat everyone we treat
neurodegenerative Ness injury that you
have we treat but you can also screen to
see if somebody is at risk for Falls yes
so if you feel after Marlo talks about
the symptoms that you may have the thing
that you're a fall risk we will do a
complementary injury screen to fall
screen come into any of our 12 clinics
and we'll do some testing on you and
then if we think you're a candidate for
a physical therapy will help you with
that okay because sometimes it's a
matter of getting ahead of it I can tell
you that my own mother goes to the gym
and she's up there with a squat rack not
a lot of weight but her friends are
falling and breaking hips and knock
would she so far has not had a fall yeah
so tell us then what some of the
symptoms of being a fall risk are but
yeah prevention is key so if you can
identify the problem prior to you know
having a fall it will definitely be
better for the patient but there's some
simple things that you could probably do
at home like you know make
sure that as far as the environment is
concerned that you're clearing the
floors and making sure that that is safe
within the home but some things that we
do within the clinic is that we identify
a patient whether it's that they've had
a history of a fall previously or if
it's a matter of they've had some
stumbles or near Falls but there is a
simple screen that you can do if you're
in doubt on whether or not you are at
risk for fall and it's a matter of like
a single leg stance balance test oh my
goodness are we gonna try that but
you're gonna try that you just got back
from the Chicago Marathon so I don't
know if you're let's see what do we go
it's performed with your eyes open and
it's as simple as you can put your hands
on your hips and the time starts when
your foot leaves the floor so once you
pick your foot up if you can maintain
this position way out letting your hands
leave your hips or the foot I'm going
back to the floor for five seconds then
you're good so let's try it Britney
here we go oh oh my I'm not going to be
good at this no matter what my shoes
four or five I think you guys are pretty
good if you're in doubt that is
something that you can do at home but
physical therapy is a very intricate
part of identifying those risk factors
whether it's due to decreased strength
inactivity is a big thing that we see
within the clinic that someone who's
maybe had a fall before and they have a
fear of falling so now they don't want
to move around but you know they become
weaker their balance becomes a little
bit more challenged they become their
muscle imbalances and issues so those
are things that we see in the clinic
that we're able to treat to improve
those and so what we want to do right
now because we know someone watching
right now is saying okay I need to get
this information to somebody we're going
to put all of the information including
Cora's website up on our website reverse
City live tv.com and we're going to send
it out now to mark and chef Tony in the
kitchen