For people who have had a fall or worry about falling, it is important to work on improving your balance and reaction time. One of the main reasons you lose some of your balance reactions as you grow older is that you are not testing them constantly. Challenge your balance and it will improve. Keep doing it and you won’t lose it.

The Green County Health Department and Pleasant View Nursing Home recognizes the need to help older adults improve their balance and prevent falls, allowing them to continue to live independently in their communities. Both have teamed up with the Aging & Disability Resource Center to offer Stepping On, a falls prevention workshop to seniors in Green County.

Stepping On approaches falls from a multifactorial approach because usually there is more than one cause for a fall. Working with local Physical Therapists, Pharmacists, Vision Rehabilitation Specialists, and community safety experts, the Stepping On program covers a variety of topics all related to falls prevention. Safe footwear, bone health, sleeping better, getting out and about, and home safety are just to name a few of covered in the seven week class.

Barbara Kummerfeldt, who will be co-leading the workshop, invites anyone curious about the Stepping On to stop into Maple Leaf Cheese and Chocolate Haus and pick up a pamphlet and talk to her about how it can improve your balance. One way Barb continues to challenge and improve her balance is by building the exercises into her daily tasks. If you watch closely, you may see her taking side-steps at the sales counter or while stocking cheese at her store. She says, “My favorite part of being a peer leader is knowing that I can inspire someone else. I wanted them to know if I can do it, so can they.”

Stepping On is a fun, educational workshop that will be offered in New Glarus at the New Glarus Home starting Tuesday, September 8th. The workshop is from 1:00 p.m.- 3:30 p.m. the first day, and from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. for the next six Tuesdays. Cost is $10.00 – scholarships are available. Space is limited to 15 people.

If you are interested in signing up, please call the Aging & Disability Resource Center at (608) 328-9499.

In the meantime, get your balance tested!!

The Aging and Disability Resource Center will be offering free balance tests in the lobby of the New Glarus branch of Union Bank & Trust Company from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., on August 21st, and at The New Glarus Home Town Pharmacy on August 27th, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.