It's not just about the injuries that can occur with falls. A fall within the past year is one predictor that someone is coming to the end, and is taken quite seriously. A fall can represents a lot of things - plain bad luck (we've all fallen at some point in our life) or .... declining balance, declining eyesight, declining strength, declining "executive function", etc. It has become a key question typically asked in the medical history of older people.
The best argument I can think of for older people to get help is "You want to stay in your own home don't you? Well getting help will help you keep living in your own home a lot longer."
My wife and I are both getting on (early to mid 70s) and we plan to stay in our own home until the very end. We've always done almost everything around the house and yard. So we're starting small. We have a large yard and now have a gardener come in for a half day every other week. Our yard looks better and it takes the pressure off of us. We'll add more help as we need more help. It's important to develop trust relationships with providers of various kinds while you're still in full command. I manage my own investments but I've told our financial advisor he is to blow the whistle on me if he thinks I'm slipping.
. But she has years of practice in that stuff, so I would rather trust her than college girls.
