Monday, November 30, 2009

Aspire. Advocate. Act.- Active Ageing

Active ageing

As our population continues to age, it is crucial to ensure that more older people spend a greater proportion of their lives in good health. Our health and social care system is better at dealing with acute needs than preventing them from occurring in the first place.

Currently, Help the Aged is focusing on four areas of public health concerning older people – preventing falls, osteoporosis, incontinence and physical activity – on the basis that these can have a dramatic impact on an older person’s quality of life and confidence.

Preventing falls

Falls represent the most frequent and serious type of accident in the over 65s, with one older person dying every five hours as a result of a fall.

Osteoporosis

One in two women and one in five men can expect to break a bone after the age of 50 due to osteoporosis.

Incontinence

In the United Kingdom, at least 6 million adults cannot control their bladders as they would wish and about 500,000 adults have similar trouble with their bowels.Yet incontinence is not an inevitable part of ageing, nor is the condition incurable in many instances.



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