When the weather dips below zero and puddles turn to black ice, seniors beware: falls are the leading cause of injury-related emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and inpatient deaths among Ontario’s elderly population, according to an Ottawa health network.

But there’s help on the way.

The Champlain Local Health Integration Network is funding a fall prevention project to offer advice, early intervention and support for seniors who have already taken a spill.

“With freezing rain, we see that falls are easy to come by,” said Wanda MacDonald, executive director of the Pinecrest Queensway Community Health Centre, during a presentation at the Western Ottawa Community Resource Centre on Thursday, Nov. 13. “Often times seniors fall and they don’t make note of it … (but) not attending to falls has consequences.”

From April 2006 to September 2007, MacDonald said an average of about 133 seniors were admitted to the emergency room each month with fall-related injuries.

Fall prevention is just one of the group’s Aging at Home strategies, aimed to help seniors remain independent and in their homes as long as possible.

“(The program) aims to prevent unnecessary hospitalizations and premature admission to long-term care homes,” said Marie Fortier, LHIN board chair. “This is an option to give people a choice … for a group of people who really deserve the best possible care.”

Alex Cullen, Bay ward Coun., said it’s important for seniors to remain living at home as long as possible. More seniors live in his ward than any other in the city.

“This is something most people would like to do as long as they can,” he said. “I’m 57 and I may need this sometime in the future myself.”

On top of fall prevention, the LHIN is also aiming an integration project at seniors of Chinese, Somali, Arab and Sikh descent with opportunities for socialization and recreation and health information in their mother tongue.

Immigrants make up close to 25 per cent of the population in west Ottawa, with about one-third coming to Canada between 1996 and 2006.

The Champlain LHIN is pumping about $7 million into funding for 28 projects in the region this year.