Maggie McKay (Host): If you have older parents or are older yourself, falling is a real concern. But unfortunately, it happens a lot, especially in later years. So today, we'll talk about how Falls Free Dane Coalition works to address falls among older adults in Dane County, with Bill Huisheere, Supervisor at the Aging and Disability Resource Center of Dane County and Chair of the Falls Free Dane Coalition, and Ashley Hillman, Falls Prevention Program Manager. Welcome to Stoughton Health Talk, a podcast from Stoughton Health. I'm your host, Maggie McKay. Thank you so much for being here, Ashley and Bill.

Ashley Hillman: Thanks for having us.

Bill Huisheere: Absolutely.

Host: Let's start off with you, Ashley. Why build a coalition around falls, prevention in particular?

Ashley Hillman: That's a great question. So I work for a non-profit called Safe Communities, and Safe Communities looks at local data and builds coalitions around the data that shows the top causes of injury death. So in Dane County, falls among older adults are one of the top causes of injury death. So that's why in 2007, we developed the Falls Free Dane Coalition to try to address that issue.

Host: And Bill, why is this something you as an ADRC supervisor wanted to be involved with?

Bill Huisheere: Well, as Ashley said, you know, the numbers of people falling are, in Wisconsin, we lead the nation with falls. So many of the people that we help have that concern of falling and we wanted to be able to connect them to preventative resources, classes to keep them safe and in the community

Host: Why is Wisconsin the highest number of falls? Any reason?

Bill Huisheere: Great question, and the verdict is out. We do rank the highest, but neighboring states, are not close to us. So people often say, oh, in Wisconsin it's because there's a higher percentage of people that drink alcohol. Well, our neighbors In Minnesota and Michigan they also probably drink at the similar level, but have much lower falls numbers.

So they really don't know, Ashley, wouldn't you agree?

Ashley Hillman: Yeah, I think that the jury is out on that. But we know it's an issue. So that's why were, working to address it.

Host: Right. Well, who else participates in the Falls Free Dane Coalition?

Ashley Hillman: We've got over 70 partners that are part of this coalition, representatives from all of our health care systems in Dane County, senior centers, the Aging and Disability Resource Center, where Bill is, United Way, Public Health, EMS, older adults themselves, community centers, anyone really who has a vested interest in addressing this issue and trying to figure out how do we we change those numbers that, Wisconsin is number one for fall deaths in the country.

Host: And what are some of the activities of the Falls Free Dane Coalition?

Bill Huisheere: Well, one of the things that we've worked on for a number of years is, what we call Only Leaves Should Fall. It's an annual event that we partner with various colleges and universities within Dane County, with students who are PT students, pharmacy students, occupational therapy students, and we have an event where the students and then older people who are interested in learning about falls related information, come, have lunch, hear a great keynote speaker, and then go through various stations where they can have their medications, by a pharmacy student looked at to see, are they taking any medicine that may increase their likelihood of falling? And, the same thing, there's some sitting and standing exercises or tools that the PT students look at and administer to see, you know, to give a person a sense of, hey, these, may be some concerns you want to bring back to your doctor to talk about, to decrease the likelihood of falling. So that's one event. There are many others that Ashley can speak to as well.

Ashley Hillman: Yeah. So I think as a coalition, we kind of look at both the grassroots and the systems levels to see, you know, what are we doing at both of those levels to reduce falls? So, the grassroots would definitely be like Only Leaves Should Fall as Bill talked about, our big annual event. We've also been offering smaller events in the community, trying to do a better job at meeting people where they are.

So it's kind of a mini version of Only Leafs Should Fall. And then also looking at data to see where are balance enhancing classes being offered. So, several years ago, we looked at data for one of the classes that we coordinate, Stepping On. It's an evidence based falls prevention program, and it was offered in a very specific part of Dane County.

And we were not reaching, more predominantly underserved areas and more rural areas. So, how do we change that? We need to make programs accessible. And then at the systems level, are we working with healthcare? Are we working with EMS? We're all serving the same people, but are we referring?

Are we, you know, streamlining those processes and, and really doing a better job at serving the older adults?

Host: And what impacts have you seen?

Ashley Hillman: Gosh, well, so I was kind of taking a look at just evaluating, you know, what have we done as a coalition? It seems like we do a lot and, you know, we meet just every other month, but we get a lot done. And we have had over 1,500 individuals, older adults, participate in Stepping On, the evidence based falls prevention program since we started off in the program over 10 years ago in Dane County. We also have since COVID, in 2020, we've had over 500 older adults participate in one of these programs, like Bill mentioned, Only Leaves Should Fall, or one of the smaller community based events, or even virtual programming, which we kind of transitioned to in the height of COVID.

 And then we also have what's called the Balance Keys Committee. So we have a group of individuals who they have developed criteria for what would make a class, quote unquote, balance enhancing. So they go out and evaluate all types of community classes. And the purpose for this is so that an older adult can look on our website or in a program guide and seeoh gosh, this class would promote balance.

So this would help me on my falls prevention journey. So then we try to compile all of those classes in one place so that older adults can more easily identify where to plug into a class. And we have over 25 classes that have been evaluated and given that balance stamp of approval. And again, I think a lot of it is just the coalition partners that we have.

It's such an amazing group of people who volunteer their time to take part in this coalition very early in the morning before they go off to work. And, I think we're doing, if I had to sum up what we're doing best right now, I would say it's meeting people where they are, bringing programming to the local communities that we're trying to serve.

I don't know, Bill, do you have anything

to add?

Bill Huisheere: No, and we're learning. And we've learned a lot, to make sure that we are going where people are most comfortable and feel safe. And we're expanding into programming to work with Spanish speaking members of our community. We're looking at how can we provide programming for our Hmong community.

So it's exciting. It's always new. There's a new challenge and the coalition is always getting new members too. So we continue to grow, with the hopes of reaching more and more folks here in Dane County.

Host: And how can others in the community get involved?

Ashley Hillman: Call me or Bill. No, honestly, I wouldn't say, just reaching out to either one of us. We'll get an email from an organization in the community or from an older adult who says, Hey, you know, I used to teach balance classes in, you know, such and such state. And we say, well, come on, let's, you know, we'd love to have your perspective, and, you at the table with us working on falls prevention in Dane County. So, definitely you can go to the Safe Communities website, which is just safercommunity.net. Or look Bill up at the ADRC or find my number and just give us a call. We'd love to have you part of this work.

 I

Host: And what is the ADRC for people who don't know?

Bill Huisheere: It's the Aging and Disability Resource Centr, in Dane County. And we help folks who are older or people with disabilities identify resources and services within the community that will help them live and work and thrive, as independently as they would like.

Host: That's great. A little off topic, but in Boy Scouts, they drill into your head three points of contact. So I don't know why my son was a Boy Scout. So I was at a lot of camping trips. I always remember that when I'm on a ladder. Do you agree with that? You have to have like two arms and a leg against something or holding something, like when you're on a ladder, like you put your leg against the ladder and then you put your hands. Have you heard of that?

Ashley Hillman: I would say don't get on a ladder if at all possible. And well, so one of the things we talk about, I think people, and Maggie, you mentioned this at the beginning, that falls, they do happen. They really do happen. And when you're older, the impacts of a fall could be even more detrimental.

But the good news is that as we're, as a population, we're living longer, we're living healthier lives; there actually are things you can do to prevent a fall. It doesn't have to happen. You know, sometimes it will, but there are things that you can do. And so home safety is one of the key things that we talk about.

And I don't know how many times people have said, well, I just pushed the chair over to change the light bulb, or I pulled out my ladder and so I think overall, the recommendation would be to, if you have to do that, use a small step stool with a bar around it for that extra support, maybe the three points that you were talking about, or wait and ask someone for assistance.

 But there are lots of proven strategies that you know, will help people prevent a fall, which is also, I think, what we were doing as a coalition is helping people know that. Because we want to empower people to be able to live the lives that they want to live as they age.

Bill Huisheere: Find that Boy Scout to change that light bulb. Find your grandson, but those are seriously, it's, so much of it is thinking, you know, as you get older, like Ashley said, a simple fall when you're in your twenties, yeah, you may sprain a knee or bruise something. As you get older, those bruises and those sprains become much more catastrophic.

And so it is assessing where you live, where the rugs are, and all those things. And these classes that Safe Communities promotes and our group promotes, they really help people to remind them to take a look in their environment. There are many things that you do have control over. Because a fall can happen in a split second and will impact you for many times the rest of your life so.

Host: Right. Well, this has been so informative and helpful. Thank you so much for sharing all this information. We really appreciate what you do and you sharing it so that people know they have access to all this, all these resources.

Ashley Hillman: Thanks for having us.

Bill Huisheere: Absolutely. Have a good rest of your day.

Host: Again, that's Bill Huisheere and Ashley Hillman. To find out more, again, you can visit safercommunity.net/fallsprevention. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out our entire podcast library for topics of interest to you. Thanks for listening. I'm Maggie McKay.

This is Stoughton Health Talk, a podcast from Stoughton Health.