Falls are the leading cause of fatal and non-fatal injury in older adults across the province.

A number of seniors from the Municipality of Emerson-Franklin participated in a Victoria Lifeline presentation that took place at the Dominion City Legion. The information focused on helping older adults to discover ways to remain independent and safe in their own homes.

Vicki Russenholt, education facilitator for Victoria Lifeline said the organization has been around for 29 years.

"In these rural areas we have 78 partner programs that benefit from our services, and some of the proceeds stay in their own community to help with resources and support the seniors. Emerson-Franklin Senior Services Coordinator Lorri French invited me out to do this presentation on fall prevention. Everyone I meet wants to stay living in their own home as long as possible because there is no place like home."

Falling is not an inevitable result of aging. Through practical lifestyle adjustments, fall prevention programs, safety tips and exercise, the number of fall injuries among seniors can be substantially reduced.

"In order to stay home as long as possible as we age there are resources we need to tap into, so I talked a lot about fall prevention and the resources that are available in the community. We know the majority of falls actually take place in our own home and that is where we let our guard down when we head out we often think more about safety," explained Russenholt.

Russenholt went on to say that exercise is extremely important and one of the biggest takeaways from the presentation, and notes that healthy living is the main focus when thinking about quality of life as we age.