Local Pharmacy Hopes to Prevent Falls

Northside Pharmacy is joining a statewide initiative to educate older citizens about fall prevention.

Retail pharmacies across the state offered screenings for seniors who take medications that may cause dizziness, drowsiness, or confusion, which could lead to life-threatening falls. Pharmacist Andrea Arnold said falls are a big problem but they can be prevented.

“You want to have your floor open and try to prevent anything on the ground that could cause falling,” said Arnold. “[You can do] different exercises and things that can help prevent falling. We have lists of things that we can hand out to people if they come in. ”

State officials say 1 in 3 Ohioans over the age of 60 will fall this year. Those falls could lead to Emergency Room visits, hospitalization, and death. The ‘A Matter of Balance’ program is working to promote exercise that can help prevent falls. Arnold said stopping by your local pharmacy can be the first step to finding out if the program is for you.

“A lot of times if you’re at one pharmacy we have everything on file so we can look at your medications and go over them and see what could be causing any issue you have but the dizziness or falling or anything we can look at and kind of tell you to research it further or we can call the doctor for you and discuss those kinds of items,” said Arnold.

For more information about ‘A Matter of Balance’ you can visit steadyu.ohio.gov.