Older Greek and Italian people targeted by fall prevention program
Older people from Greek and Italian backgrounds in South Australia are the prime targets in a falls prevention program launched today in Adelaide.
View by date:
Previous MinistersPDF printable version of Older Greek and Italian people targeted by fall prevention program (PDF 16KB)
7 October 2005
JB145/05
Older people from Greek and Italian backgrounds in South Australia are the prime targets in a falls prevention program launched today in Adelaide by the Minister for Ageing, Julie Bishop.
"Falls are the most significant injury issue for people aged over 65 years," Ms Bishop said.
"At present around 1,000 older Australians die from falls each year and a further 55,000 are hospitalised."
The project will run a series of fall prevention workshops and education sessions for older Greek and Italian speaking people in South Australia and those that care for them.
"Around 7 per cent of people in Australia over the age of 65 years are from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. This project will assist to provide this particular group of older people with information on how to best prevent falls and minimise injury risk," Ms Bishop said.
"Falls can cause considerable pain and misery for older people, however they can be reduced through some simple measures and precautions.
"Educating older people about how to prevent falls is the first step in reducing the number of older Australians that die or are hospitalised as a result of falls each year."
The project will also be developing a variety of falls prevention materials in Greek and Italian including falls risk checklists and a falls prevention poster.
The project is one of three to receive Australian Government funding for falls prevention for older people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
The Australian Government has provided more than $63,000 to Metropolitan Domiciliary Care of the State Government of South Australia to run the project.
The Australian Government has committed $18.5 million over the nine years to 2008 to the National Falls Prevention for Older People Initiative.
Media contact: Kay McNiece - 0412 132 585
Help with accessing large documents
When accessing large documents (over 500 KB in size), it is recommended that the following procedure be used:
- Click the link with the RIGHT mouse button
- Choose "Save Target As.../Save Link As..." depending on your browser
- Select an appropriate folder on a local drive to place the downloaded file
Attempting to open large documents within the browser window (by left-clicking)
may inhibit your ability to continue browsing while the document is
opening and/or lead to system problems.
Help with accessing PDF documents
To view PDF (Portable Document Format) documents, you will need to have a PDF reader installed on your computer. A number of PDF readers are available through the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) Web Guide website.