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Where to Research DIY Home Fall Preventions

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Where to Research DIY Home Fall Preventions

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Falling is one of the most common causes of injuries in older adults. In fact, 1 in 4 Americans ages 65+ fall every year. When someone falls in their youth, they are often able to recover with only a few scratches; as a senior, falling can lead to serious injury or even death. Falling is a serious cause for concern in older age, so it is important to take preventative measures to make sure you or a senior you know is as safe as possible. One way to help reduce the risk of falls is to know where to research DIY home fall prevention. By knowing what resources are available, you can live a safer life and ideally make your home fall free. Below are some resources for fall prevention.

Youtube

YouTube is a free video service where users can upload their own video content. Once a user uploads a video, that video can be viewed by anyone in the world who goes to the Youtube website. Youtube has tons of information available. You can look up virtually anything on Youtube. When it comes to researching tips on fall prevention, you want to be careful regarding what videos you watch and where the videos come from — since anyone can upload videos, you can’t always be sure if the content you are watching has any credibility.

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One credible Youtube channel to go to for fall prevention tips is Vince Baiera’s channel. Vince is the founder of step2health and has worked as an ICU nurse. His videos are short and to the point, and his background in healthcare makes him a trustworthy content creator.

Vince’s channel is ideal for those looking to learn tips quickly. His videos are formatted so that you can get all the information you need in one minute.

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Another Youtube channel you can visit is UCLA Health UCLA is a highly recognized university and their webinar on fall prevention is extremely informative.

Try to avoid videos from random content creators on the internet. Their ideas may be good, but if the video is not made by a professional, the potential risks of performing a home fall prevention DIY could be risky.

Google (But Search Mindfully!)

Google is a great place to start when inquiring about fall prevention. However, just like with Youtube, it is crucial to be careful about where you get your information from — some websites contain information that may be incorrect and when researching something as important as fall prevention, you want to make sure the websites you view are credible.

The AARP is a great website to visit for learning about fall prevention. As you probably know, AARP is a reliable website and they have many useful articles that can benefit you. The AARP has many different types of articles, from blogs to tips, you are well covered with them!

Another helpful resource is the National Council on Aging — an organization that emphasizes senior care and aging.

Websites that are nationally recognized and are designed for seniors are great as they are backed by tons of research and are very credible.

When searching the internet for fall prevention DIY tips, try to keep your searches on the first page of Google. The first page has the most relevant sources that have the most traffic.

What To Avoid

When researching DIY home fall prevention, it is important to know what websites you should avoid. Try to avoid forum websites such as Reddit, Yahoo Answers or Quora. These websites have little regulation on them and are run by random individuals on the internet. Because anyone can post on these websites, you can’t know what information is trustworthy and what isn’t. Forums are a great place to share stories or learn new information but take all the information you gather with a grain of salt as

No matter what, always be careful when looking for fall prevention tips on the internet — even if it comes from a reliable source. If you are DIY’ing something to make your home safer, make sure to assess your ability before you take action. Your safety is the most important thing and always evaluate your level of ability before completing a DIY.

If none of those websites appeal to you, there are some steps you can take in order to perform research on your own safely.

Step 1: When Researching DIY Home Fall Prevention, Check To Make Sure The Website Is Trustworthy.

How do you know if a website is trustworthy or not? There are a couple of things you should pay attention to. First, the author. Who is the author? Are they a doctor? Or is it a random person? This is important because since it is so easy to publish information on the internet, misinformation can be easily spread. The author should be trustworthy and searchable

Next check the date the article was published. Ideally, you want the website to be relatively new. When researching DIY home fall prevention, it is important to be aware that safety standards may change.

After you check the author and the date, take a quick skim through the article. Most articles have hyperlinks within the article. When publishers write an article, the hyperlinks are most often the sources they use. Click on those links and try to check out the author and date of those links.

Another thing you should look out for when it comes to DIY home fall prevention research is to look at the writing style of the blog. Poorly written blogs won’t always have bad information, but it is better to edge on the side of consciousness.

Step 2: When Researching DIY Home Fall Prevention Always be on the lookout for domains!

Those in the United States are most familiar with .com, .org. And .net. Colleges and universities use .edu, and government websites use .gov. Most of the time, .gov and .edu websites are very reliable and have lots of research backing them.

When researching DIY home fall prevention, be extra careful of .org websites. Many of these .org websites are from non-profits that may attempt to persuade you rather than educate you.

Step 3: When Researching DIY Home Fall Prevention Be Wary Of Website Design

While not always the case the way a website looks can be very indicative of how reliable the information is. This isn’t always the case, but by assessing if the website you may be able to further conclude if the website is trustworthy.

Step 4:When Researching DIY Home Fall Prevention Always Be Aware Of Bias

When researching DIY Home Fall Prevention, you should be careful of biased articles. One article may say that the best way to research home fall prevention is to do what other articles on their website recommend. This doesn’t mean these tips are bad but always take all tips with a grain of salt.

Step 5: When Researching DIY Home Fall Prevention Always Ask Questions

If a DIY home fall prevention tip seems off to you, always trust your gut. If a website recommends a fall prevention tip that you think is unsafe. Don’t do it. If you are confused about any tips, try to contact the website for further clarification.



Vince Baiera

Vince Baiera is the founder of step2health, a mobility aids and wellness company for older adults. He is a former ICU Nurse of the Cleveland Clinic and Duke University Hospital in the Cardiac ICU. With years of working on the frontlines, Vince noticed the struggles of older adults and people with mobility issues that became an impediment for both patients and their caretakers. He then designed and created the patented product, Step2Bed (and its variants) that helps seniors and those with mobility issues safely get in and out of bed. His philosophy concerning aging is to plan ahead and start with simple home and life modifications to avoid being overwhelmed at retirement.

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