 Good afternoon and welcome to Kondo Insider. My name is Jane Sugimura and I'm your host for today. And I have a very special guest. His name is Michael Dahl and he's currently the chairman of the State of Hawaii's Fall Prevention Consortium where he's been an active volunteer since 2012. And he's going to be talking to us about helping seniors because we have a lot of seniors who live in condos. And several years ago there was some legislation enacted to help condominiums assist seniors by providing them with a release of liability if they help the seniors. And because we have a lot of seniors who live in condominiums, today's program should be very informative. And right now, let me introduce Michael Dahl. Hello. Michael, hello. Welcome to the program. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you. Tell us about yourself. I have a company. My name is Michael Dahl. I have a company called Stay at Home Modifications. And what we do is go into people's homes and do home assessments so that we can help them prevent falls within the home. And you're a certified agent, a place specialist. I am a certified agent, a place specialist through the Home Builders Association. I've been trained on how to do home assessments to prevent falls and make the home livable longer. Why is falling such a concern? You know, every day, every hour, a senior is taken to the emergency room because they fell and they're preventable. And I think with a little education and a little know-how, you can reduce the chances in your house of falling and safe age in place. And we have a video that is put up at the Department of Health, right? And so why don't we run the video now? Every hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, a senior, like you and I, is transported by an ambulance to a hospital because of a fall injury. Many never get to go home or regain full independence. You can prevent falls and stay independent by taking simple precautions. To avoid the fall you just witnessed, just be aware and always look where you walk. Be careful all the time, especially in your own home. To repeat, every hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, a senior fall injury is transported to an emergency room. That's over 8,700 per year in Hawaii. That's too much. You and I have to stop falling. And we're not just gambling with our own life or independence. Oh no, your family, your spouse, your children, even your grandchildren will also suffer. Also, we're going to talk about four basic things you can do to prevent falls. First, some medications cause dizziness, which can lead to falls. If you take more than four prescriptions, that is a warning sign. In addition, over-the-counter meds such as allergy or cold and flu medications and even cough syrups can combine with your prescriptions and cause dizziness or drowsy feelings that could contribute to a fall. Meds such as ginseng, ginkle root, and bilbao may be equally dangerous if taken in combination with your medication. Be proactive and prevent a fall. Simply make an appointment with your doctor or pharmacist today to review your medications, including any over-the-counter drugs and supplements. Second, maintaining good vision helps with balance and safety. As we mature, our eyesight changes. It sometimes changes so slowly we don't realize how bad our vision may have become. All kinds of problems with eyesight come with maturity. Cataracts can cause cloudy, blurred vision. Glaucoma causes severe damage and you may not even know you have it. Floaters or tiny spots or flecks that float across your eye can be harmless. But it may be an indication of more serious eye damage. And as we age, our eyes cannot gather as much light as they used to so we see the world darker. You need to increase the light in your house. Make your lights brighter. Always turn on a light when you get up to go to the restroom at night. Even better, install night lights. Be proactive and prevent a fall. Have your eyes checked at least once a year. Third, we all must stay active. We have to keep moving because balance and strength are essential to preventing falls. Be active and do simple movements every day to prevent a fall. Walk and walk and walk safely or play in the garden or exercise with friends and swim and start a program like Tai Chi as it is proven to be the best for fall prevention and balance. Stay active. If we don't use it, we lose it. Fourth, remove fall hazards. Make your home safer by keeping pathways clear in the floor free of objects. Clutter, electric cords and loose throw rugs can be a dangerous combination. Whether or not you have been living in the same house for years, you and I must be very careful and watch where we walk. If you have grandchildren, they might have accidentally left the toy to trip on. You can even trip on your pet and take extra care in the bathroom. The combination of water and soap can make the floor as well as a shower or bathtub very slippery and hard edges everywhere make it dangerous if you fall. Install grab bars in the shower or tub. They can save your life or prevent a serious injury. Be extra careful around stairs. Hold the handrail or install a new one if none exists. If you want to live alone safely, install and use an electronic call device. There are many types on the market. Find the best for you and your loved ones and have it installed. A simple push of the button will result in an immediate response in the event you fall or experience an emergency. Hello, we got your signal. Is everything all right? It is all about independence. This device makes it safer to live alone. Bottom line, we, you and I, need to take responsibility for our own safety and we can prevent falls. Let's not allow our best years to crumble due to preventable mistake like falling. Use safety in a safe home. We can prevent falls and stay independent by taking simple precautions. Here is a summary of the four main fall prevention tips. Some medications cause dizziness which can lead to falls. Be proactive and prevent a fall. Simply make an appointment with your doctor or pharmacist today to review your medications including any over the counter drugs and supplements. Maintaining good vision helps with balance and safety. Be proactive and prevent a fall. Have your eyes checked at least once a year. Balance and strength are essential to preventing falls. Be active and do simple movements every day to prevent a fall. Walk, garden, do yoga, swim, dance or start a program like Tai Chi. Make your home safer by removing fall hazards like keeping pathways clear in the floor free of objects. Visit www.nogethurt.hoai.gov for a home safety checklist. For further information call the Department of Health Injury Prevention Program at 733-9202 for fall prevention information and programs. Here is a quick look at the four things you and I can do to prevent falls. One, check our medications. Two, make sure we get an annual vision check. Three, figure out a way to stay very, very active in a fun way. And finally, four, make our environment safe and secure with no fall hazards, with grab bars in the bathrooms and an electronic call device to use. It's proven these tips save lives, but you have to do it. The buck stops right here. Promise. I will do everything I can to prevent a loved one or myself from falling. Thanks for listening. Aloha and Mahalo. Okay. Now, this video, you were involved in creating it. Yeah, I was. I was the guy falling in the opening scene. Oh, okay. Well, other than that, I mean, this gives some good pointers to people who live in the condominiums. Right? It does. Absolutely. Is there anything you can add that the video hasn't covered? I would say within a condominium association, you want to take a good look at your entrances and exits, you know, how easy is it for you to open a door, whether or not it's got a round handle or a knob handle. Lighting is always important and always be careful around rugs. That seems to be one of the areas that most people have difficulties in tripping over. And you're talking about, so this is for the condominium management? Common area, yeah. Common area. Yeah. Why are rugs such a problem? You know, as we get older, the gantt in your foot, the way your foot rises when you're walking, slows down and you start to not move it up as much. And so that makes it really easy to trip over rugs and small cracks in the sidewalk even because your slowly feet aren't lifting up as high. So you always want to make sure you're exercising more and get that flexibility when you're walking. Okay. But you're saying that for condominiums, like in a lobby, if you have rugs, that rugs is not a good thing to have. They're not. They're attractive. They're functional. But you're not going to get rid of them, but you just have to be real careful about them. You don't want to make them too high and create a trip hazard. Because in some condominiums, I mean, when you come in, maybe on, you know, maybe on, I know in our condominium, the side entrance, when you're coming in from the garage, there's like a mat. Yeah. And that's basically, I guess, for to catch moisture as you come into the building. And so I know that there's a mat out there. And it's not cemented, or it's not cemented or... Take down. Yeah. You just have to be especially careful. And I always recommend people, they know when they're getting ready to trip or they can feel it. You have a general, you're not moving as fast, maybe one day is compared to the next. So take your time. Make sure your lights are good. You have good glasses so that you can see these hazards as you're approaching them. And so you're talking about the seniors who live in the condominiums. Right. But what about for the, I mean, so how can the management help? I mean, I mean, they should be walking through their building and looking out for these things. You know what I like to suggest to people is as observers, they see these people walking through the building and they're the ones that can identify these problems just by observing the seniors using them. So whether it's not enough light or tripping over a rug, you know, they're always there watching. And it's just some of its common sense, but you just got to keep a special eye on the seniors to see if they're having any difficulties. Are they having a hard time making that one step into the building? Or have you seen them stumble on a rug? Or is the lights not bright enough for them? You notice them trying to have a hard time reading. So you're saying that some of the maintenance people should be reporting to management. They should be alerted to look out for the seniors and to see where they're having problems. Yeah. It's a team approach because everybody involved in the building should be looking for these things, these safety concerns. And so, I mean, and is it just for seniors or, you know, does it help the general population who live in the building? It helps everybody. You know, like putting grab bars in a bathroom in your bathtub, it makes it safer for anybody, even the little kids up to grandma and grandpa to use the bathroom. So all these things are going to make it safer for everybody to use and reduce the fall risk. Okay. Well, we're going to take a short break now. And then we will be back with more questions about how we keep our seniors safe and happy in our condominiums. Welcome to Sister Power. I'm your host, Sharon Thomas Yarbrough, where we motivate, educate, empower, and inspire all women. We are live here every other Thursday at 4 p.m. And we welcome you to join us here at Sister Power. Aloha and thank you. Hello, I'm Winston Welch and every other Monday at 3 p.m., you can join me at Out and About, a show where we explore a variety of topics, organizations, events, and the people who fuel them in our city, state, country, and world. So please join us every other Monday at 3 p.m., and we'll see you then. Aloha. Okay. You're welcome. So thank you for joining us. Welcome back. We're into our second portion of the program. And today our program is on Aging in Place, and we have Michael Dow, who is an aging in place specialist. And the first part of the program, we had a video about falling. And falling is a big problem with seniors, isn't it? Yes, it is. And so the video was talking about these four pillars, and one was taking, having your medication checked. And why is that so important? Well, you know, today people, you can buy a lot of these over-the-counter, Ginko and other remedies that people use. And as you age, your body does not metabolize the medications like they do when you're young. So when you're younger, you take a sleeping pill, it's out of your system at $8. But when you're 75 and older, it could be $14, $15, $16 before that medication is out of your system. And then you start mixing that with other medications that are over-the-counter, maybe Vic's Nyquil, or things like that, that can really play havoc on your system. And you don't even know that you're mixing up two different types of pain relief or sleeping pills, aspirins even. And so you should be reporting, because your doctor is the one who prescribes your medicines. Right. So you should be telling your doctor about the stuff that you buy over-the-counter. Absolutely. And what we ask people to do is just make an appointment with your pharmacist. A lot of people have multiple doctors. So one doctor might not know what the other one's prescribing. So most people typically have their prescriptions filled at one pharmacy. So you make an appointment with him, you bring in all the different types of medications you're taking, as well as anything over-the-counter, that's aspirin, ginkgo, Nyquil, anything that you might be rubbing on your body. Because all these things have different ingredients in them that can interact with the medications that you're taking. And what kind of consequences might you have? You get dizzy spells. It can affect your vision. You know, a lot of people, some people are even blacking out, and they just fall over. You mentioned ginkgo. What is ginkgo? Ginkgo is one of those over-the-counter supplements people take for pain. But that can have interaction with some types of blood medication, you know, high blood pressure. And you just don't know it. You think it's safe because you're buying it over-the-counter. And then that's why you like to go to the pharmacist, so that they can tell you, no, this would interact with that. I see. People are drinking. A lot of people don't realize if you're drinking on some of your medications that, you know, like Ambien. I see. People black out. And then the second thing that they should be, people should be cognizant about is their vision. Vision, yeah. I go into a lot of people's homes, and I still see people using those old World War II black glasses. And I ask them, when was the last time you had your eyes checked? Oh, a year and a half, two years ago. And your vision gets deteriorates quicker as you're aging. So it's important to go at least once a year to get your prescription refilled. And the vision is important because if you can't see, then this causes you to trip and fall. Trip and fall, right. And especially if you live in a condominium, I mean, that could result in a problem unless you have somebody checking on you or living with you. Right, right. So you get a lot of things. You get those little floaters in your eyes or people get the other eye diseases that make it real difficult to see light. Oh, talking about light. You were talking about one of the things that the building can do is to make sure that there's sufficient lighting. Is there a certain kind of light that's good or bad? There is. Today they have a new bulb on the market. It's been out for a couple of years. It's called a daylight bulb. So you have your soft white, your bright white, and then your daylight. The daylight bulb has more blue in the spectrum, so more light actually enters your eye. It makes it easier to read, to look at your medications, to read the small print. And it lights where you're walking better than a soft white that can hide a shadow from something that you might have seen. And the video was talking about, as you age, the way that light enters your eyes are affected. Right, right. So you're not absorbing as much of that blue light as you get older. And that's what these bulbs do. You don't put them in the bedroom because then your brain thinks it's daylight outside. But you put them in the kitchen, in the hallways, anywhere you're doing a task. In other words, the building is something that the building can do. That would be helping your seniors to see better. Are these like LED lights that? They can buy them in any kind of style now. They don't really make those squiggly ones anymore. But these bulbs, the daylight type, you can buy them in the fluorescent tubes even now. Because you know the big thing with condominiums is you want to save money. That's why you do the LEDs. Exactly. These are very efficient. These are actually more efficient than the old fluorescent ones. And what are the next two pillars? Exercise. So it's always important, even if you're sitting down to do some sort of exercise, if you visit the state of Hawaii's website, there's some Tai Chi exercises that you can learn to do that will just help you with your flexibility and your movement so that when you are up and going to the bathroom or the hallway or go into the kitchen that you're more flexible. In your experience, are you aware that condominiums have activities for seniors that would allow them to get together or to do exercises? Yes. Some of the buildings do have that. Can you tell me about some of the programs that you use? What they do is they have one person, that's what they call Tai Chi master, and they organize a group of seniors to come down maybe two or three times a week. And they'll meet in the common area of room or if they have another area where they have a swimming pool area. And they just walk you through some really easy exercises that get the blood flowing and help you stretch and keep that movement. That's what you really want is keep moving. But having these facilities or having a place to have these events, that would require the cooperation of their company. But they also have that different community centers, senior centers, the churches, the Department of Health has a listing of them on the website you can go to. And this would help your seniors keep active. Right. Right. So when your body starts sitting for too long, that your muscles start to deteriorate and then you're not moving as much so you're not getting that flexibility that you need to stay safe. Okay. And then what was the last pillar? Making your home safe. So that would be really taking a personal assessment of what your capabilities, what movement you're able to do. And I tell people, you're the one, you know when you have a hard time walking where it's harder to get out of bed or trying to use the bathroom when you have to step over the tub and you know more than half of falls happen inside the home. So it's really important that people take a step back and figure out what it is that they can do to their house to make it safe from falling. That means picking up stuff from the floor. Right. Not having clutter on the floor. You know rugs, get rid of the rugs if you can, get rid of the cords, get rid of the clutter. You should have a clear pathway when you're going to the bathroom, going to the bedroom and going outside of the house. If you're using furniture to balance, you know, you should probably have a walker or something because furniture can move. Putting grab bars in the bathroom will really go a long way to avoiding falls. That's the most dangerous area in the house. And more half the accidents happen there inside the bathroom. Nowadays you can even get your tub cut so that you don't have to step over it because that's become a challenge for a lot of seniors. Taking the floor and trying to put something non-slip on it. You get out of the shower, your feet are soapy, you're wet. That's the number one area you can slip in the house. Even the kids, the grandkids, they get soap all over the place. So make sure you put three grab bars in the shower. If you need to have it cut, you can put grab bars on the toilet that will help you get on and off the toilet. There's a lot of people, you know, just sitting down on the toilet. This is 15 inches. If you can afford it, I tell people to get the higher toilet seats because it makes it easier to get on and off. And it also helps other people using your bathroom too. Sometimes people, you know, they're bashful about using the bathroom because they have a hard time getting on and off the bathroom, off the toilet. Changing out the lights is also important. Getting bright lights inside the bathroom so you can see what you're doing. And none of these things cost a lot of money, but they can really go a long way in reducing your chance of falling inside the house. And you were talking to, I mean, talking about the building. You were talking about doorknobs. Doorknobs. A lot of people have a hard time grabbing onto a circular doorknob. Or if they're holding a package, you know, they're trying to put the key in and turn it. So if it's within the building's budget, they could put the levered handles on it. And if it's an area where you're having a lot of seniors coming in and out carrying things, look into installing an automatic door opener that they can use so that they're not fumbling and trying to do too many things at one time. Or, you know, having someplace where they can put their packages and maybe having some like a push card or something. Absolutely. Yeah. Have you seen that in buildings? I've seen that all over. Unfortunately, sometimes though, if it's not there, they don't want to wait for it. So they're trying to carry these things up or they're putting them down on the bench and maybe going one at a time. So it's always important to make sure you have enough of those. And you know, why do you think it's important to have, I mean, for the building to get involved, be proactive in helping these seniors? Well, I mean, they're all living together. They're all, you know, a family unit, whether you're living alone or living, you're in the same unit. And it's important that everybody stays safe in these buildings. And the building management, everybody from the janitors to the security guards, they're the ones that interact with all these people the most. And it's the security guards that are helping the people up when they fall because they're trying, they can't get up off the floor. So a lot of times security is called to help them out. And you know that there's like a fire safety requirement about making, you know, having a list of vulnerable people for the first responders. Absolutely. You should always have a working smoke alarm. That's one of the biggest things I see is smoke alarms that are too old, that aren't going to be effective. The next thing is to have an emergency contact list. So if you are unconscious, they know who to call. And then a list of all the medications that you're taking, so that when you do get transported to the hospital, they know what medications you're on and the other kind of. And so these are things that the unit owners should have available. You should probably help the building. Right. And if they're comfortable with it, you could ask someone to keep it, maybe security, so that they have it. But I always tell people just to put a magnet on your fridge. Keep it right there. And then you always know it's there. Okay. Well, you know, we're getting to the end of our time. And you know, thank you so much for all the information that you've given. And give us the name of your company again. The name of my company is Stay At Home Modifications. And my other company is called Ohana Stairlifts. We put in stairlifts for veterans and seniors to get in and out of town. Because we have a lot of condominiums and community associations that are townhouses. Yeah. Yeah. So you'd be a valuable resource. Thank you so much for being with us. And please tune in next week for another episode of Condo Insider for people who live and work in condominiums. Thank you very much for joining us this afternoon.