Cara Loverock
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, November 21, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - The Department of Health and Social Services launched new signs during National Senior Safety week earlier this month, warning seniors of the risk of falling.

Vivian Squires, executive director of the Yellowknife Seniors Society, and Kathryn Youngblut, a member of the advisory committee for the GNWT Injury Prevention Strategy, hold up one of the new signs that are part of the fall prevention strategy for seniors. - Cara Loverock/ NNSL photo

The signs will be bright blue and yellow without text in order to accommodate linguistic diversity.

Lona Hegeman, injury prevention specialist with Health and Social Services, said 68 per cent of hospitalizations for seniors territorially are for fall-related injuries and 13 per cent die as a result of the fall.

"We're just trying to increase the awareness of preventing falls instead of coping with falls," she said of the project.

The sign initiative began four years ago, with individuals from Health and Social Services meeting with elders in various communities, including Yellowknife, and in the Sahtu and Beaufort Delta.

The elders were consulted about their thoughts on risk prevention for seniors and where the risk areas were in their communities.

"Upon request we'll make the signage available how people want it," said Hegeman. "It's just to raise the awareness of the prevention of falls for public places and we're also doing signage to make folks aware of the level of support that some people need."

In addition to fall-risk signs there are also signs to go in care facilities and on patient charts to address certain types of assistance that some clients need. They will be distributed through health centres and RCMP detachments throughout the NWT.

Hegeman said there are also calendars in the works that will be distributed to different NWT communities, including Yellowknife, in the theme of fall prevention.

They will include the new signs and several tips from 650 elders on how they stay safe.

Hegeman did not give an exact amount spent throughout the NWT on the project, but said in Yellowknife it was roughly $1,050 to meet with elders up to this point.