Stroke, the elderly and falling

Regensburg, 2013

Enjoying life and working out

I try to be asleep before the new postings on the blog Deans' Stroke Musings arrive in my email in-box almost daily at just after midnight. I often read them on the tram to work.

There is so much information available on this site it is unbelievable and often in between are insights into what I would describe as conductive living. This week these two postings particularly caught my eye –

http://oc1dean.blogspot.de/2014/01/bar-stool-stroke-rehab.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+DeansStrokeMusings+%28deans%27+stroke+musings%29

http://oc1dean.blogspot.de/2014/01/cross-country-skiing.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+DeansStrokeMusings+%28deans%27+stroke+musings%29

This popped up too

Also brought to my attention were these high-tech shoes designed for the elderly or injured to help prevent falls –

http://medcitynews.com/2014/01/shoes-seniors-go-high-tech-prevent-falls/

I do not think that we should hold our breath waiting for this shoe to detect imbalance, or to improve balance, but I could be wrong. I think we should keep on bringing it to the awareness of our clients how important posture and symmetry are in all activities and to practise walking in many situations, with partners and without, indoors and out, in shoes, in boots, with bare feet and in slippers – if worn. We should continue learning and teaching how to fix the feet securely, bear weight on them and learn to balance in all sitting positions, when transferring seats, when standing up or sitting down, while bending and stretching, and when relaxing and when tense.

Together clients and conductors can discover the importance of knowing where each part of the body is, what happens to it when you move a different part and what you need to do to keep it where you want it, or need it, to be.

Relying on a shoe to let us know when we are unbalanced could quite possibly bring the information too late, especially if one has not learnt how to react and what to do with this knowledge.

I had already written this far a few days ago when I discovered this –

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/protective-clothes-for-the-elderly-could-slash-hip-injuries-9100327.html

More help – this time in the help of a material not to prevent falls but to prevent injury from falls by way of a material that stiffens on impact. Possibilities for its use will be developed by teams of researchers and business entrepreneurs.

With clothes specially cut to suit wheelchair users already priced well out of reach of most people who could benefit from them I wonder how many elderly people would be able to purchase such protective garments if needed.

Or would these clothes be available as part of the rehabilitation programme?

We will see but until then let’s stick to doing a bit of conductive learning and living such as that mentioned on Deans' Stroke Musings.

Notes

Deans' Stroke Musings –

www.oc1dean.blogspot.com