What we want for our loved ones as they age is that they maintain their independence so that they can live at home as long as possible. How can we reconcile these wishes with everything we currently hear about the health network and with the increasing aging of our population?
Quebec has approximately 750,000 inhabitants aged 75 and over. In 20 years, it will be 1.5 million! Even more worrying, according to the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec: 60% of Quebec adults do not have a sufficient level of “health literacy” to take good care of themselves. Although we must be careful not to see this as a catastrophic situation that could be described as “geriageddon”, we no longer have the luxury of waiting.
What we have been proposing with social geriatrics for almost 10 years is to bring to the forefront the prevention of loss of autonomy through stakeholders who are dedicated to it, but also community mobilization and the transmission of knowledge and inspired tools. from geriatrics to the population.
Prevention above all (the example of falls)
In Quebec, each year, up to one in three seniors aged 65 and over, or around 500,000 people, falls. Each year, these falls cause more than 6% of all emergency room visits, around 84,000 ambulance transports and 21,000 hospitalizations, as well as injuries requiring medical attention for almost 50,000 seniors. At a minimum, falls represent more than a billion dollars in annual costs, in addition to generating suffering and worry…
Now, let’s focus on the fate reserved for the approximately 350,000 seniors who did not need care. For them, this is a missed opportunity to prevent rather than cure, especially when we know that the main predictor of a fall is to already have a fall under your belt during the year! What to do, then?
First, we need to educate the population more and ensure that a very clear message comes out: falling at a certain age is not normal. This often hides other consequences. Talk to a health professional and find out what actions are available to you and that you can take yourself to preserve your independence or that of a loved one.
Then, we must further develop active prevention at home with mechanisms that will highlight promotion-prevention interventions that can significantly reduce falls, such as doing exercises to improve strength and balance, making the environment more safety, have your vision assessed (and corrected), check if you have pressure drops, etc. No one needs permission to practice these things. This is what the AGES Foundation has been advocating since 2019 by supporting social geriatrics projects in 18 territories whose stakeholders are equipped in particular to prevent falls at home.
In recent years, the AGES Foundation has trained more than 5,000 people as “sentinels” in social geriatrics. We hope to have trained 50,000 people by 2031. Imagine the impact of his pairs of arms, which could also contribute to improving the health of Quebec seniors and perhaps alleviate the pressure on services! By participating in these trainings, we can ensure that fewer and fewer seniors end up on the ground or in an ambulance for something that could have easily been avoided by an informed person. Because an informed person is worth two.