Talking Health with the Clinton County Health Department

Every second, of every day, an older adult falls. Falls are the leading cause of injuries (both fatal and nonfatal) for older adults. As an elder-millennial – my mind can’t help but go to “help I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” . While not all falls are a LifeAlert© emergency, we want to do everything we can to avoid even minor falls. Falls, with or without injury, can alter someone’s quality of life or even make them more likely to experience another fall. Which makes taking steps to reduce the risk of a fall extremely important. This month, we are talking to Rachel Pierce, Public Health Sanitarian with CCHD’s Healthy Neighborhoods Program about ways to change someone’s home environment to make daily activities easier, reduce accidents (including falls), and support independent living. Rachel, we often think of age as the only factor that can increase someone’s risk of a fall, but what else can play a roll? You’re right, age is a factor that can increase someone’s risk of a fall, bu...

Social media has us watching real-time updates of structure fires in the North Country – but am I just noticing them now or are they happening more often? Or is it both? According to the U.S. Fire Administration, the number of fires, fire related deaths and money lost due to fires in the U.S. have all increased more than 10% in the past 10 years. The U.S. has already seen 1,403 home fire fatalities just this year. Do you have a plan if you woke up to a fire in your home in? Now in my house, it has been made very clear – I am on my own, my wife will be saving the dogs before me. But that hardly makes us prepared. How will we get out of each room? Where will we meet? This fire safety month, we sat down with Clinton County Emergency Services Director Eric Day. Eric has more than 30 years of experience preventing and fighting fires in the North Country. Eric, it seems like we have had more major structure fires in the past few years than usual. Is that true or are they just more widely ...

Here in the North Country, we know winter. She’s the pesky old friend that shows up just when we are at the end of the rope to hit us in the face with a snowball or her bitter cold attitude - let's face it, we wouldn't even still be friends if we hadn't known her for so long. But here we are, welcoming her back into our community, weather (get it...) we like it or not. One minute she’s a beauty; the sun’s rays glistening off her snowy landscape. The next she’s a frigid b…well you know what. The problem with dealing with the ice queen is that we still have to function even though all we want to do is stay in our cozy homes giving her the silent treatment. This means having to travel in unpleasant conditions like snow, sleet, rain, ice and wind. Lucky for us, we have CCHD Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Mark Lafountain to help us navigate through our love/hate relationship with winter. Mark, why do we keep doing this to ourselves? Some folks see winter as just another seas...