Falling with style

Academy advocates safe falls for seniors

A private school in Kalihi known for producing world-class gymnasts is also a research center dedicated in part to ensuring that students of all ages benefit from innovative strategies and techniques for reducing injuries due to falls.

Hawaii Academy Founder and Director Dr. Max Vercruyssen, a member of the Hawaii Statewide Fall Prevention Consortium and self-described "fall advocate," feels strongly that everyone - particularly seniors - should learn how to fall confidently, without fear or injury, by training in safe falling methods on soft surfaces in an instructional environment.

Validating Vercruyssen's concern is Hawaii State Department of Health data listing falls as the third leading cause of death from injuries among seniors, with 20 victims in Honolulu in 2006. The death rate for those 85 and older is listed at 38 times higher than in the 65-to-69-year age range. On average, one Hawaii senior is hospitalized with serious fall-related injuries every five hours.

Fall-prevention programs benefit only a small proportion of the elderly population, according to the Hawaii Statewide Fall Prevention Consortium and the Healthy People 2010 Program to Reduce Deaths from Falls and Fall-Related Injuries.

More promising is a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report stating that exercise intervention reduces the risk of falling by 12 percent and total falls by 19 percent.

Fall preparation in conjunction with fall prevention should push those percentages even higher.

Vercruyssen acknowledges that falls are inevitable - but that injuries are preventable by learning certain techniques, such as the "break fall" reflex and rolling upon impact.

Taking his advocacy public, Vercruyssen's monthly Safe Falling Workshops promise to "change the way you contact the ground forever."