The Joint Committee on Elder Affairs held a public hearing at the State House on Wednesday, September 23 and among the bills taken up were proposals relating to falls prevention among older adults.
Lisa O’Loughlin, an independent community nurse and falls prevention advocate, presented testimony supporting the falls prevention bill, Senate Bill 318, on behalf of the Home Care Alliance. You can view that testimony by clicking here. Gail Mello, Rehabilitation Director for the Brockton Visiting Nurse Association, also presented testimony in which she stressed the urgency of passing the bill using a story of a patient who suffered a fall and is now in serious condition.
The Alliance, as a member of the state’s Falls Prevention Awareness Coalition, co-sponsored and helped host Falls Prevention Awareness Day at the State House on September 22. The Alliance’s Director of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs Helen Siegel spoke to a crowd of seniors and falls awareness advocates in the Great Hall along with Department of Public Health Commissioner John Auerbach, State Senator and co-chair of the Elder Affairs Committee Patricia Jehlen, and Assistant Secretary of the Executive Office of Elder Affairs Ruth Palombo.
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