CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — An EMS group is offering balance classes for senior citizens to reduce the risk of falls.
Butler Radio reported that Cranberry EMS will begin offering an eight-week class next month designed to educate senior citizens on how to participate in activities safely and reduce the risk of falls.
The program, “A Matter of Balance,” was developed by Boston University, and focuses on strength exercises and education for citizens on how to make changes at home that will reduce their chance of falling and injuring themselves.
A Western University study conducted in London, Ontario, and released in September concluded that paramedics spend a month’s worth of time each year on calls from elderly patients who have fallen and require assistance getting up.
“Some of these people would say, ‘I don’t have anybody else to call, so I have to call you and wait on the floor until you arrive,’” Dustin Carter, superintendent of community paramedicine with the Middlesex-London Paramedic Service, said.
The Cranberry EMS classes begin Nov. 2.