Want to Live a Lifetime Safely in Your Home? Hear from the Experts

More than 25 percent of adults age 65 and older fall every year and many of those accidents occur at home. So, AARP wants to help you make your home safer for your loved ones.

We’re hosting a number of virtual events to share free and inexpensive changes you can make now so that you can live safely and comfortably for years to come in the home and community you love. Join us at 1 p.m. ET on Dec. 4 for a TeleTown Hall , where you’ll hear about the tips and resources in our free AARP HomeFit® Guide.

You can also sign up for a pair of virtual workshops:

Get tips and strategies on in-home fall prevention(hyperlink) at 7 p.m. ET on Dec. 4, featuring Gwen Bergen with the Center for Disease Control’s Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention.

On Dec. 11 at 7 p.m. ET, learn easy DIY fixes(hyperlink) from Vince Butler of the National Association of Homebuilders, a master instructor and aging-in-place specialist.

And you can always download the AARP HomeFit® Guide to get more information.

Gwen Bergen serves as a Behavioral Scientist on the Home and Recreation Team in the Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention (DUIP) at the CDC Injury Center. She works to prevent older adult falls, to understand older adult mobility issues, and to find better sources of surveillance and economic data for unintentional injury.

Prior to serving on the Home and Recreation Team, she was a Behavioral Scientist on the Motor Vehicle Team. She began her career at CDC as a post-doctoral fellow at the National Center for Health Statistics working with the injury group. Prior to starting her career in public health she worked as a computer scientist designing, developing, and testing information systems.

She received her undergraduate degree in health systems and her master of science in information and computer sciences from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA. She received her masters of public health from the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta, GA, and her doctorate in health policy and management with an emphasis in social and behavioral science from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Vince Butler has led Butler Brothers Corporation as president since 1984, and he has been an active member of the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association (NVBIA) since 1997. Butler served NAHB as the National Remodelers Chair in 2006, the Membership Committee Chair in 2008 and the National Education Committee Chair in 2014. Butler is a nationally recognized speaker on residential construction management topics and an approved NAHB Master Instructor.

He has taught courses and presented at regional trade shows on subjects ranging from aging-in-place to business management, and was named NAHB CAPS Educator of the Year in 2012 and Builder Remodeler Educator of the Year in 2017. During the height of the pandemic in 2020, Butler began facilitating Shop Talks for the NAHB Remodelers Council to keep members connected in a time of isolation, and he continues to volunteer his time and expertise to these Shop Talks today