The research is being funded by the Age UK, and is probing the link between vision and a slip and fall accident. Researchers are specifically looking at the theory that a person's risk of a fall accident increases when he is looking straight ahead, and not down at obstacles that are in front of him. According to the research, older adults who look directly ahead at obstacles in the distance may be at a higher risk of a fall accident than those who look at obstacles in front of them. 

Age UK is planning more studies into the prevention of fall accidents involving the elderly. Soon, the group will initiate a new study involving people over the age of 65. Researchers are currently looking for subjects who will participate in this new research. The research will involve a four-hour experiment during which the subjects must walk over a 7 m walkway. The participants will be required to take precise steps on a target marked on the road, as well as over a series of marked obstacles. While they walk, a number of variables will measured, including the participants’ eye and body movements. Saliva samples will be tested. Participants will also be surveyed about their experiences while walking. Through this study, the researchers hope to determine safer ways of walking for senior adults.

A senior citizen is at a much higher risk of a slip and fall accident because of a number of factors. Seniors may suffer from failing vision, which may affect their ability to identify hazards that contribute to a fall. Besides, senior citizens have problems with body gait, which can affect balance and body coordination and increase their risks of a slip and fall. They may also have poor reflexes, which affect their ability to grab onto something at the beginning of the fall.

Slip and fall accidents can lead to much more serious injuries in a senior adult than any other person. These persons are prone to a condition called osteoporosis in which there is decreased bone mineral density. Such seniors are at a high risk of suffering fractures and broken bones in an accident. A hip fracture in a senior citizen can have much more serious consequences than in a younger person. Bones can take a longer time to heal in senior adults. Besides, surgeries are riskier in these people because of their advanced years and the prevalence of other medical conditions.

Therefore, it's important for apartment building owners, commercial property owners and others to ensure that their properties are free of fall hazards and safe for senior visitors to use. For more information, see Slip and Falls by the Elderly.

The Atlanta slip and fall accident lawyers at the Katz Law Firm represent persons who have been injured in slip and fall accidents across Georgia.

Not only are seniors living much longer, but they are also living healthier lives. A 65-year-old American today probably lives independently, and walks a lot for leisure for health. Unfortunately, these persons are likely walking on streets that have not been designed with their safest interests in mind. 

Many of the streets were designed decades ago, when there were fewer numbers of pedestrians on the street, let alone elderly pedestrians. In those days, streets were designed for automobiles only. An elderly person is slower than most people for who our crosswalks were designed. That's a fact of life, and street planning has not taken this into consideration.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-slow-walkers-20110612,0,2669866.story

This week, family health agencies and elder safety groups in Georgia are asking all citizens to look out for signs of elder abuse. 

Signs of physical abuse of elders are easy to detect. 

·        Look out for bruises and wounds and cigarette burns. Also look for signs of unnecessary physical restraint like handcuff marks.

·        Look for a lack of physical grooming, like dirty and uncombed hair, dirty clothes, body odor and a generally unkempt appearance.

·        Elders who are being abused may show signs of malnutrition and dehydration. They may also have bed sores.

·        Make sure that the person is receiving his/her medications on time. Failure to offer medical treatment can also be a sign of elder abuse.

While physical abuse is easy to detect, mental abuse can be harder to spot. Often, elder may be subjected to emotional and mental abuse in nursing homes. Look for signs of anxiety, edginess, and fear. If your loved one looks jumpy or withdrawn, find out if there's a problem you should know about. Be alert if you find that your loved one's caregiver does not allow your loved one to speak.

A darker side of elder abuse is sexual abuse, which is much more common than Americans like to think. We all need to do our part to protect the elderly.

http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/state-hopes-to-raise-975688.html?cxtype=rss_news_81960

The study conducted by researchers at Australian National University, studied 266 volunteers aged between 70 and 88. The volunteers were required to take a driving test, with a driving instructor and an occupational therapist in the vehicle.

17% of the drivers in the study made critical driving mistakes, like veering or failing to check in their blind spots. The risk of making critical driving errors increased with age. For instance, drivers between the age of 70 and 74 made an average of one driving error. Drivers between the age of 85 and 89 however made an average of four critical driving errors. Additionally, those drivers who had been involved in an accident over the past five years were also much more likely to make driving errors.

There were no differences between men and women in the number of critical driving errors made. The most frequent driving error was failing to look in blind spots, veering across lanes of traffic and failure to use signals while turning.

According to statistics by the US Census Bureau, elderly drivers above the age of 75 are involved in 7.5% of the total number of fatal car accidents that occurred in the US in 2008. They were also involved in 3.1% of all car accidents that year. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention says that in 2009, the number of elder drivers above the age of 65 in the country spiked to 33 million people. Those numbers are expected to increase further, increasing concern about the crash risks of these drivers.

According to her personnel file which runs into 420 pages, she once crashed her bus into a parked car, causing the car to hit another vehicle. In another incident, her bus clipped the mirror of another parked vehicle. Her personnel report also shows plenty of complaints from passengers about her abusive nature. 

However last Sunday, McMillian outdid herself. The 62-year-old passenger, who uses a walker, had just gotten off the bus and turned around when she realized that she had left her purse on the bus. Her arm got caught in the closing doors of the bus. What happened next was a nightmare for the woman. McMillian continued to operate the bus, driving on, while dragging the elderly woman alongside the bus. The woman was dragged more than 60 feet, before witnesses got McMillian to stop the bus. When the bus stopped, McMillian opened the door at which point the lady fell on the road. Not bothering to check on the lady, McMillian simply drove off from the scene.

McMillian has been fired from her job. A look at her personnel file shows plenty of complaints from passengers about poor driving, obnoxious behavior and rudeness. Beyond history, McMillian's attitude towards an injured elderly passenger being dragged along really is extremely disconcerting.  

There seem to have been many indications that this was a problem employee. Her file lists dozens of complaints. Last year, she had even been placed in a retraining program. We wonder at what point MARTA begins to get really concerned about a problem employee who is a risk to passengers.

According to the report, out of 300,000 nursing home residents studied in 2007, approximately 90% received powerful anti-psychotic medications that are typically used for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. There are studies to prove that elderly persons who receive antipsychotic medications can be at a high risk of death. In spite of this, these vulnerable persons were overmedicated, and there is no reason to believe that things have changed dramatically between 2007 and now. 

Moreover, it seems highly likely that the pharmaceutical industry has been behind this overmedication of nursing home residents. One of the ways in which pharmaceutical companies increase their profits is by promoting off-label uses of their drugs. An off-label use of a drug is one which has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Doctors can prescribe a drug for off-label uses, but a company is not allowed to market the drug for these purposes.

However, as Atlanta nursing home abuse attorneys have noted in the past, that hasn't really stopped pharmaceutical companies from aggressively promoting off-label uses of their drugs, especially among elders. The more numbers of uses these drugs are prescribed for, the higher the profits for the company. 

In addition, the report also found that one in five residents in nursing homes have been administered these drugs in a manner that violates federal standards for their use. These patients were either given dosages that were too high or were on the medication for too long a period of time.

The report also discusses the kind of person who is more susceptible to abuse. For instance, people with cognitive or physical impairment may be more susceptible to abuse. Elderly persons who have trouble bathing or feeding themselves and are dependent on others for such activities, may be at a higher risk of abuse. Elderly persons who lack social support, like a strong family network, were much more likely to be abused.

Besides, the report also analyzes the detrimental effects of such abuse on victims. For instance, a study conducted in 2,000 found that elder abuse victims had higher levels of depression, compared to elders who were not abused. Another study conducted in 2006 on elderly women in the Midwest found that women who were psychologically abused had more health problems than those who were not abused. Elder abuse also seems to decrease the lifespan of the victims. A decade-long study conducted between 1982 and 1992 found that only 9% of abuse victims were still alive in 1995, compared to 40% of elders who had not been subjected to abuse during the same period. The difference is just staggering and sad. We all must be aware and prepared to act when we see abuse.

The study was conducted at the University of Rochester, and found that older people have impaired activity in the medial temporal visual area of the brain. This part of the brain suppresses movement in the background, so that the person can focus clearly on objects in the foreground. In elderly people, this section of the brain may be impaired. They may find it easy to perceive movement in the background, but not so easy to see objects that are in the foreground. That is why Atlanta car accident attorneys so often find elderly motorists involved in accidents with pedestrians and bicyclists.

The researchers used a technique called Transcranial Magnetics Stimulation, which involved attaching a magnetic card to the subject’s head, and measuring the activity of the MT area of the brain. The MT area was stimulated using electrical signals, and the researchers analyzed how well the subjects in the study identified the movement of objects. They found that when the MT area of the brain was impaired, the person could readily and easily identify objects in the background.

These results provide clues to at least one of the issues that affect elderly drivers, and also suggest that these drivers may be distracted by objects in the background because of impaired MT area activity as a result of their age. As Atlanta car accident lawyers, we believe that these results can be used to fine-tune driving programs for elderly motorists.

DeKalb County, Emory Healthcare Partner to Care for Abused Elderly

It is one of the first such initiatives anywhere in the country, and as Atlanta elder abuse lawyers, we are extremely proud that DeKalb County will be home to an exclusive elder abuse shelter and treatment center. DeKalb County prosecutors and Emory Healthcare are partnering up to provide a safe haven for senior citizens who are abused and have nowhere else to go.

Under the partnership, emergency workers will bring patients would have been abused to the geriatric center at Emory Health Care, which is donating a few beds for this very purpose. These elderly persons will be treated, and then be examined to look for any signs of physical abuse, and if the doctors determined that abuse has taken place, prosecutors will move in to prosecute the cases.

Abuse victims will be given free beds at the Wesley Woods Center where they will have a place to recover. This facility will also be available to those who have no insurance. Under the current system, elder abuse victims are taken to the Grady Memorial Hospital, where they're treated for their injuries and then released without any further treatment. The victims have then no choice but to go back to the environment in which they were abused, thereby continuing the vicious cycle.

There's another big advantage to this kind of shelter for elder abuse victims. It allows for preserving elder abuse evidence that can be used during prosecution.

This is a wonderful initiative, and we wish it all success. It's very important for elderly victims who are being subjected to physical or mental abuse, to know that they're not alone, and that there is a place where they can not only heal and receive comfort, but also begin the process of punishing those responsible for their abuse.