There are many ways to celebrate Fall Prevention Awareness Day in your community. It can be as expensive or elaborate as you would like. It could be a matter of handing out fall prevention materials at the mall, offering a community walk, holding lectures in a retirement community to providing medical providers information on fall prevention. Use your imagination and creativity on how to reach as many people as possible. Here are some suggestions for events that can be held in your community on September 18, 2008 as part of Fall Prevention Awareness Day.
Who do we want to attend?
Determine the target population that you want to attract to your event. Community dwelling seniors, children of seniors or the medical community can all participate in the activities. Your event will be determined by your goals and objectives.
What is the purpose of the event?
Have some specific goals and objectives in mind that you would like to accomplish for that day.
-
Education- Do you want to focus on education about the risks for falls or how to make homes safer? Offer lectures, pamphlets/brochures or other printed materials about fall prevention.
-
Screenings- Are you going to have screenings to determine a persons risk of falling? Timed up and go tests, paper and pencil screenings or home screenings will all be informative.
-
Physical Activity- Do you want to stress the importance of keeping seniors active and moving? Have a Tai Chi class, walking groups, or strengthening classes.
What do we need to do to run the event?
Determine the resources that are available that can be used to reach your audience. Check with local Area Agencies on Aging, community grants, emergency medical service to see if they can provide people, locations, money or any other kind of assistance that will help your event to be successful. Find community partners that can share in the excitement of offering this type of event. Mayors, commissioners, medical personnel, health departments, hospitals, retirement communities and many others can all be involved with participating in your activities.
Where do we want to hold the event?
Have your event at a location that is accessible to seniors. Senior centers, community centers, retirement communities, or hospitals offer good locations that are known to seniors and can be easily reached.
Importance of the media
The success of you event will be dependent on getting the word out to the community. The most effective way is to work with the local media and have them promote your activities.
Contacting the media
Contact the local newspaper and see if they would run a story and if all possible, a picture, about what is taking place. Most papers want to do stories that have an impact on the health and welfare of the community. Before contacting the journalist, you will need to have everything planned for your event. Be able to answer, who, what, when, where and why. Point out that this is a statewide proclamation and that fall prevention is not only a local priority, a state priority, but it is also a national priority.
Making the initial story into a human-interest story also helps. Knowing someone that lives in the community and has been impacted by a fall provides more details that we all can relate to.
Other promotional activities
Another avenue to promote your event is to go to the local television studio and tell them your story. Often times, they will put out public service announcements for free. If they see that this will benefit a large part of the community, they may want to do a story about the day.
Flyers and brochures can be sent to physician offices, pharmacies, churches, community centers and senior centers. Send information that promotes your activities to other locations where seniors attend.
|
