Healthy aging means avoiding trips and falls

Older adults can learn to avoid trips and falls plus schedule a mobility assessment through the Douglas County Health Department. is vital topic will be explored on ursday, June 1 at the Seniors’ Council of Douglas County meeting held at the Douglas County Miller Building, Conference Rooms A&B, in Castle Rock. e meeting is from 10-11:30 am and is free and open to the public.

Clara and Ollie were living a calm retirement when a fall changed their lives.

Clara was 75 years old and in good health when she tripped on a loose rug, fell, and broke her wrist. e injury required surgery and a cast. e related pain required medication.

One night, after getting home from the hospital, Clara got up from bed. As she stood, her head began to swim. Lightheaded from the pain

Letters

FROM PAGE 12 in Europe. Moms and dads raising families need air to breathe and yards to play or work in. People of all ages want to live in ownership units to preserve wealth building. Single family units are the key to wealth building no matter how much appointed planners or follow the money politicians think otherwise e long solution: Give quality developers the challenge to solve a ordable housing issues o ering ownership instead of renters. Remove the heavy hand of government agendas now calling the shots against developer innovation and creativity. Developers have become a hated group unnecessarily. Good developers can and will solve the affordable housing crisis ... untie their hands. help overcome their fears in certain situations. And some of us face our fears head on. It’s not that the fear isn’t there, it’s just that they acknowledge their fear and summon the courage to deal with it in that moment. Still there are others who say they have no fear, that they aren’t afraid of anything, and these are the folks who lie about other things too.

We all have fears, and that’s normal and okay. What we should strive to work towards is not letting our fears stop us from achieving our goals. We can never let our fears get in the way of who we want to be and what we want to do. When fear wins, we lose, and when we allow fear to cheat us from achieving our goals it’s a double loss.

Here are a few things that I have learned to lean into when I have felt fearful. First is this that hope and fear are the same thing, a belief that something is going to happen in the future. So why not live with hope instead of fear, hoping that something good will happen and not anything bad. Second is turning fear into an acronym, F.E.A.R. stands for False

Living And Aging Well

“As we began planning for our new health department, we asked our community what they wanted from public health,” said Michael Hill, director of the Douglas County Health Department. “Based on community engagement and research, we saw that injury prevention was one of the top three needs in our community.”

Stene

medication, Clara fell again. is time, she hit her head on the bedside table and su ered a fatal brain injury. Ollie was devastated by the loss of his wife, and he died the next year from a broken heart.

For older adults, a fall can be lifealtering. Each year, nearly 3 million older adults nationwide are treated in emergency departments for injuries sustained during a fall. Helping Douglas County’s 52,000 adults over age 65 prevent falls is a priority for the new Douglas County Health Department.

e short solution: If defending your property rights is important to you, Join up with a multiple county coalition forming against property right abuses. A Public Outcry Alert was held in Lakewood on April 11th at the Rockley Event Center. e place was packed. Homeowners/ taxpayers showed up from these ve surrounding counties; Je erson, Arapahoe, Adams, Douglas, Denver plus towns Lakewood, Parker and Westminster. Add your name to the list held by organizer RameyKJohnson@gmail.com

Evie Zur, Parker Zoning plans hurt homeowners Douglas County commissioners are considering zoning regulations changes that would let them approve new high-density developments without regard to the character of the existing neighborhood. ese changes would give developers an easier route to getting multi-family,

Health care professionals and public health agencies are working together to better understand what leads to falls, including some of the realities our older adults face, such as:

1. Decreased strength, conditioning, and balance

2. Side e ects of medications, both prescribed and over-the counter

3. Limited vision and hearing

4. Hazards in/around the home, such as stairs, rugs, and uneven sidewalks or oors

What can older adults do? Laura Larson and Dr. Owen Stene, Doug-

HUD projects, apartments, and other urban-style housing inserted into Douglas County’s longtime single-family traditional communities. Governor Polis is attempting a similar result with the terrible SB23213 that steals the zoning authority las County Health Department, will discuss the plan to prevent older adults from injury-related falls as well as introduce the new Health Department’s priorities, at the June 1 Seniors’ Council meeting. e Douglas County Health Department is committed to providing person-centered care that supports overall health and wellbeing for older residents. e department is located at 410 S. Wilcox Street, Suite 103, in Castle Rock and can be contacted at 720-643-2400. of citizen-elected council members in towns across Colorado, handing one-size- ts-all control to the state in the name of more “a ordable housing.”

Seniors’ Council of Douglas County serves and advocates for older adults. Information and updates are available at www.douglas.co.us — search for Seniors’ Council. Our signature event for older adults, Vintage & Vibrant, is planned for Saturday, Sept. 28 in Parker. Details and updates can be found on our website.

SEE LETTERS, P15

Evidence Appearing Real. And lastly, the famous quote said by so many, but I will choose this version, “Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the realization that there is something more important than fear.” -

D. Roosevelt

Franklin

Here’s the good news, Carolyn overcame her fear of public speaking by learning how to be overprepared with her content. She learned other helpful speaking tips from Toastmasters, and she is doing awesome. Allen not only survived his 90-day performance improvement plan, he is also back to focusing on doing his sales behaviors, following a sales process, and winning business. Fear for both is a thing of the past.

Are you holding on to any fears that are keeping you from achieving your goals? I would love to hear your hope and fear story at gotonorton@ gmail.com and when we can never allow our fears to cheat us out of our goals and dreams, it really will be a better than good life.

Michael Norton is an author, a personal and professional coach, consultant, trainer, encourager and motivator of individuals and businesses, working with organizations and associations across multiple industries.

BY OLIVIA JEWELL LOVE OLOVE@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

In a state that has over 400 breweries and almost 100 distilleries, approaching the topic of sobriety can be a hard conversation for many people to have.

But with low-key, no-fuss non-alcoholic options at many establishments across the metro, it doesn’t have to be a big deal if you don’t want to drink, whatever your reasons.

Mocktails that you wouldn’t even know were NA

Golden Moon Speakeasy in Golden uses all its own distilled spirits and creates unique craft cocktails at’s all the more reason that general manager Kayla Veatch sees to o er quality, non-alcoholic options.

“My overall philosophy when I changed the menu was to have the same options as the alcohol menu,” Veatch said.

So no, you won’t have to order a water if you’re the designated driver. e mocktails at Golden Moon use highly steeped teas to replace alcohol and utilize many of the same syrups and NA ingredients the cocktails use.

Mocktails are a great option for people ready to slow down on alcohol for the night, people taking certain medications, pregnant people and people exploring sobriety, Veatch said. e speakeasy even serves mocktails to children before 9 p.m.

Having an inclusive menu makes an establishment like this a gathering place for groups, Veatch explained.

“People can still come together….if I didn’t have mocktails, I wonder if they would still be excited to come,” she said about group members who don’t consume alcohol.

Some of the mocktails Veatch makes include the Cloud City, which features an earl grey tea base, ginger, lemon and elder ower, or the Cheshire Cat, which features a butter y pea ower tea base, passionfruit juice and lime. Veatch even makes a copycat smoked whiskey.

Golden Moon Speakeasy is located at 1111 Miner’s Alley in Golden.

An alcohol alternative

For those looking for another NA drink option, perhaps with health bene ts, kombucha has been a popular choice.

Kombucha has been added as an option at many breweries, bars and co ee shops around Colorado; but Marc Gaudreault owns one of only two kombucha tap rooms on the front range.

Before the pandemic, the Trubucha tap room in Lone Tree had space for people to sit inside and enjoy a glass of kombucha. According to Gaudreault, Trubucha actually grew during the pandemic, and the demand for his product is so great he needs most of his shop space for fermenting the kombucha in huge vats.

Still, Trubucha boasts 31 taps in the store and has a spacious patio for people to enjoy kombucha, lemonade, ginger beer or cold brew.

So, what is kombucha? Put simply, Gaudreault explained, it’s lightly fermented tea. But the health bene ts are much more lengthy, he said. Most notably, the drink has an abundance of natural probiotics,