Falls Prevention Classes Offer Mature Residents a Greater Chance to Stay Independent for Life

Commissioner of Health Services, Dr. James Tomarken invites mature residents to attend the county’s national award-winning program focused on falls prevention. The program is intended to empower mature adults to carry out behaviors that reduce the risks of falls and improve their quality of life

These programs are ‘Stepping On’, a CDC model program, comprises a seven-week course that focuses on balance and strength, home and community safety, vision, safe footwear and medication review. The program has proven to reduce the number of falls for participants by 31 percent. A second option entitled “Staying Independent for Life” covers much of the information that is provided in the ‘Stepping On’ program in a condensed two-hour session.

Between 2011 and 2016 these programs collectively reached over 11,000 senior citizens to teach them about how to prevent falls in the home and live independently. The program will be offered as follows:

‘Stepping On’

Port Jefferson Station

Workshop dates and times:

Monday, July 10, 17, 24, 31;  August 7, 14, 21, 2017, 10:00 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Comsewogue Public Library

170 Terryville Road,

Port Jefferson Station,  NY 11776

To register call 631-928-1212

Staying Independent for Life

Huntington

Tuesday, July 11, 2017,  from 1:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m.

Huntington Library

388 Main Street
Huntington,  NY 11743

To register call  631-427-5165

Additional programs will be rolled out in communities throughout Suffolk County over the course of the year. For more information about Suffolk County Falls Prevention Programs, call the Suffolk County Department of Health Services at 631-853-6492 or visit: http://www.suffolkcountyny.gov/Departments/HealthServices/PreventiveMedicine/FallsPrevention.aspx

Watch this video to learn more about what your peers are doing at Suffolk County’s falls-prevention programs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxsoHmjJvN8&feature=youtu.be