In This Issue:

1. "You Don't Know What You Don't Know!"
2. Preventive Screenings Can Help People Lead Healthier Lives
3. Preventive Strategies: Promoting Home Safety
4. Ask Dr. Vanessa

Hello everyone!

If you could do something today to save your life or improve the quality of your life, would you do it? Perhaps after you have read this month’s newsletter, you will know your answer to these questions.

Health and safety screenings and assessments can save lives and improve the quality of life. In this issue, we will provide practical information about preventive health and safety screenings and assessments; share some outstanding Internet resources you can use to find more detailed information, and highlight some prevention strategies you can choose to promote your home safety.

We hope you find this issue enjoyable. Please share it with your friends and family members.  Our newsletter can be automatically emailed to you each month by signing up to join our mailing list on the left of this page.

We wish you good health!

The SAFE Aging Staff

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1. “You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know!”
By Vanessa M. Dazio, OTD

Until you learn about something, you really don’t know what you don’t know! This is a big problem when it comes to your health and safety. Where do you begin? How do you recognize a problem if you don’t even know the problem exists? How do you solve a problem if you haven’t recognized it? The simple answer is knowledge! You need to know about your health to be healthy. Learn about health to understand it and protect it.

One easy way to learn about your health is to screen for common health conditions that can threaten your life or safety. Screening tools and tests look for potentially harmful situations, factors or conditions that could lead to loss of independence, illness, accidents, disability, or death.

Screenings are offered to healthy people. Once a screening is completed, results provide early evidence that either there are no factors to worry about at the time of the screening, or potential risk factors exist that require further detailed study. Once there is early detection of a possible risk factor or problem, action can be taken quickly to determine if there really is a problem! If there is a problem, rapid action can be taken either to eliminate the problem or prevent the problem from becoming uncontrollable.

Health screenings can save lives. A good example is early detection of a lump in the breast. Early detection of cancer through self examination is a “screening”. A mammography which is an x-ray of breast tissue is also a screening. Both types of screening can detect lumps. Both increase your awareness and knowledge at an early stage. Both types of screenings can serve as “attention getters” that make the difference between losing “a lump” versus losing a whole breast or losing one’s life entirely!

A good example of in home safety screening is doing a walk around in the home specifically looking for potentially risky conditions that could cause falls or ill health.

Some examples of risky conditions that could cause falls includes slippery rugs, clutter, obstacles in pathways or steps, poor lighting, damaged floors or carpets, electric appliances near water, fabrics near heat sources, and cords across pathways.

Some examples of risky environmental conditions that can cause ill health are smoky rooms, molds and mildews, dust and vermin droppings, rooms with excessive noise or high or low temperatures. These environmental hazards can increase health problems associated with a wide variety of conditions including allergies, asthma, emphysema and heart related problems.

You don’t know what you don’t know until you learn something about it! Take the time to learn about your health and safety, then take preventive measures. It could save your life!

For more information, call SAFE Aging at 727-848-1535 (toll free 866-SAFE AGE) or contact Dr. Vanessa via email.

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2. Preventive Screenings Can Help People
Lead Healthier Lives

The best way to be healthy is to live a healthy lifestyle. You can live a healthy lifestyle by exercising, eating well, keeping a healthy weight, and not smoking.

Another important way to be healthy is to use preventive services provided by doctors and other health care providers such as occupational therapists. Preventive screenings and services, early detection of disease, and disease management, along with professional advice on diet, exercise, weight control, and smoking cessation, can help people to lead healthier lives.

Preventive services include exams, lab tests, and screenings. They also include shots, monitoring, information and community programs to help you make healthy choices and wise decisions about your health and safety.

As a result of the new Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (MMA) of 2003, Medicare coverage has been expanded to include the following new preventive services as of January 1, 2005: The following are the new preventive services.

• Initial Preventive Physical Examination (IPPE) - the "Welcome to Medicare" Physical Examination
• Cardiovascular Screening Blood Tests
• Diabetes Screening Tests, Supplies, Self-Management Training, and Other Services
• Mammography Screening
• Screening Pap Tests
• Pelvic Screening Examination
• Colorectal Cancer Screening
• Prostate Cancer Screening
• Influenza, Pneumococcal, and Hepatitis B Vaccinations
• Bone Mass Measurements
• Glaucoma Screening
• Glossary of Commonly Used Terms
• CMS and Medicare Websites
• Preventive Websites
• Preventive Benefits Chart

We have included the link to Medicare’s official government booklet called Guide to Medicare’s Preventive Services. We strongly recommend you read this booklet from cover to cover as it explains:

• What prevention is and why it’s important
• Which preventive services are new
• Which preventive services Medicare covers, what it is and how often
• Who can get them
• What you pay

http://www.medicare.gov/Publications/Pubs/pdf/10110.pdf

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3. Preventive Strategies: Promoting Home Safety
by Vanessa M. Dazio, OTD

Promoting Home Safety

Aging brings changes that can significantly affect lifestyle and safety in the home. Changes in physical, emotional and/or cognitive abilities can make living at home difficult or impossible, even for healthy older adults.

To have a safe home, it is important the home adjusts to fit the abilities of the people in it. We change homes to promote the safety of babies, toddlers, children, and teenagers. But for some reason, we forget about making safety promoting environmental changes as we age.

Common changes due to normal aging require changes in the home. Preparing for normal age related changes should be something every senior does to assure home safety, and promote personal wellness. But, if you don’t know what you don’t know, it is very hard to find a starting point.

Many people are unaware of options that can be chosen to reduce safety hazards or improve independence in the home. For adults who are 65 or older, it is a good idea to have a home safety assessment by a qualified health care professional such as an occupational therapist. Health care professionals who are specially trained in aging, human growth, development and behavior, health, disease processes, home safety and ergonomics  can competently assess a home environment and the people who live in it, and suggest solutions.

A skilled health care professional has the ability to observe the home environment in a systematic manner, while considering complex personal factors of every person living in the home. The health care professional can verify existing risks, hazards and unsafe conditions, and make specific recommendations designed to promote function, health, wellness and safety in the home.

What are the benefits of having a home safety assessment?

Home safety assessments are a valuable service that can accomplish the following:

1. identify potential and existing risks, hazards and unsafe conditions or practices
2. prevent or delay the loss of independence
3. prevent or delay the decline in abilities
4. improve home safety
5. improve abilities
6. improve “peace of mind”
7. improve the quality of life
8. save money by delaying institutionalization or the need to move
9. identify useful devices, designs or arrangements to promote abilities

When are home safety assessments recommended?

An in home safety assessment is suggested at different times for different reasons. Here are some examples:

1. upon turning 65
2. when living at home seems more difficult than ever before
3. when the person living at home is unable to do daily life tasks safely
4. when the person living at home is having increasing difficulty due to a recent changes in health or abilities
5. when caregivers or assistants are having difficulty assisting the person who is living at home and needs help
6. when considering a move to another less independent environment

SCREENINGS: Internet Resource Information

There are many wonderful resources that contain loads of information about screenings, health promotion, wellness and safety. We have included a number of links. .

Medicare has prepared many wonderful brochures that carefully explain a wide variety of screening programs. Here are some of the brochures that are useful, which can be included in your health library.

CANCER Screenings Brochure
This Medicare brochure explains mammography, pap smears, colorectal screening, prostate cancer screening, and pelvic screening examinations.

GLAUCOMA Screening Brochure
This Medicare brochure explains what is glaucoma, who are at risk and provides information about Medicare benefits.

ADULT IMMUNIZATIONS Screening Brochure
This Medicare brochure called Adult Immunizations provides a good basic explanation of Influenza Vaccine, Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Vaccine (PPV), and Hepatitis B Vaccine, risk factors and Medicare benefits.

The American Public Health Association published a series of very interesting fact sheets called:

Live Stronger, Longer: Health Screening - Cancer Screening Schedule: This brochure provides a recommended screening schedule for cancer screenings and other screenings.

Live Stronger, Longer: Healthy Lifestyle - This brochure includes recommendations for physical activity and eating a healthy diet.

Live Stronger, Longer: Injury Prevention - Facts about falls and recommendations to eliminate home hazards brochure.

Live Stronger, Longer: Prescription Medications - This brochure includes facts about medication use and recommendations for using medications safely.

Useful forms: This is a handy “forms” resource you can download that includes a form to track the following things: check ups and cancer test tracker, shots chart, medicine minder.

These are handy “forms” developed by SAFE Aging

How to Organize Your Personal Health Information

How to Reduce Your Risk of Falling

Emergency Phone Numbers List

Home Safety: Are You At Risk For Injury

Calculator of calories: This is a very interesting site provided as a service by the National Information Center by US Department of Health and Human Services. You can use this resource to help you calculate your daily calorie needs.  Health Information Center, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

Safety checklist: This is a very useful fire safety checklist you can use at home written by the Home Safety Council

Safety guides in the home: The Home Safety Council has a terrific website that includes safety guides for a wide range of safety concerns in the home.

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4. Ask Dr. Vanessa

Question:  I live alone in my home that was built more than 25 years ago. I am starting to have some problems with my balance and I feel unsteady when I walk and when I shower.  

My shower is only about 3 feet wide and long. I can barely step into the shower when the shower door swings in. I feel afraid that I will fall. Do you have any suggestions?

Answer: Unsteady walking and imbalance are serious risks that could cause life threatening injuries or even death. Add these concerns to unsafe environmental design, and you have a recipe for danger!  

If you should fall or pass out in a small shower, it might be next to impossible to safely open the shower door. For safety purposes, current building codes require doors to swing out.  An easy immediate solution might be to simply remove the door and add a shower curtain. This would give you the ability to step into the shower without the door impeding your way. In fact, it eliminates the door swing problem entirely. 

Other not so obvious solutions would include thinking about why you are having problems with your balance. What is causing the imbalance? Is it a loss of muscular strength? Are you weaker? Have you had an injury? Do you have other physical conditions? Do you have high or low blood pressure? Are you taking medications that might have an effect on balance? Do you have an ear condition that could affect your balance? 

There are many factors to consider when thinking about balance and unsteady walking. I recommend you discuss your balance concerns with your physician or health care professional such as a physical therapist. Contact an occupational therapist to do an in home assessment. Please take immediate action to eliminate your shower door hazard and improve your balance and walking abilities. Stay safe!

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In Next Month's Issue...

Rein Tideiksaar, Ph.D is a famous author on fall prevention and has written a number of books. Rein is President of FallPrevent, LLC, a company that provides consulting and marketing services to healthcare professionals, institutions and companies in connection with fall prevention in the elderly. Dr. Tideiksaar is currently writing “Beating Gravity”, a book for older people and family caregivers on fall prevention. His article "Taking Charge: Reducing the Risk of Falls" will be featured in our June issue.

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