The primary purpose of the Balance and Falls SIG is to provide a forum for the increase of knowledge and quality of Physical Therapy practice in relation to older persons with balance problems and an increased risk for falling.
These include:
Monday, June 28th - Annual National Falls Prevention Awareness Day (NFPAD) Kick Off Call
The APTA Geriatrics Balance and Falls Special Interest Group is proud to announce that our annual National Falls Prevention Awareness Day (NFPAD) Kick Off Call that occurred on Monday, June 28th, was a success! NFPAD is an annual event that occurs each year on the first week of fall (this year, it is the week of Wednesday September 22nd) and serves as a national effort to bring fall prevention to the forefront of the minds of clinicians, communities, and community partners. At this meeting we presented our NFPAD Toolkit (Version 2.0) to support falls prevention community events, talked about successful events others have had in their states (both pre and post COVID), and answered many of your questions about falls prevention! See below for a recording of the meeting.
Check out the updated webpage for Falls Prevention Awareness Week at NCOA. They recently added links to “The Role of a Physical Therapist in Health Aging” and “Encouraging Older Adults to Stay Active During COVID-19” under Flyers, Infographics and other materials. Further updates in October will feature physical therapy as they highlight PT’s Role in Fall Prevention during National Physical Therapy Month.
Download the Falls Prevention Awareness Toolkit: A Comprehensive Guide to Professional & Community Engagement for Geriatric Fall/Balance Assessment, developed by the Balance and Falls SIG. The resources provided within the toolkit are designed to assist clinicians and students in creating and/or improving their community-based falls prevention events by utilizing current evidence and a wide-variety of quality resources.
Each year more than a quarter of Americans age 65 and older report a fall. While not all falls result in injury, fall injuries can result in functional decline, decreased quality of life, and even death. CDC has created new clinician resources to help prevent older patient falls during a hospital stay and post-discharge, as well as tools to help educate ageing adults and caregivers about how to age without injury.
Ageing adults often experience decreased mobility while hospitalized. This can increase their risk of poor functional outcomes after discharge and lead to hospital readmission. To help hospitals prevent falls in hospitalized and recently discharged patients, the CDC created the STEADI: Best Practices for Developing an Inpatient Program to Prevent Older Adult Falls After Discharge. The Best Practices Guide was created in partnership with the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and offers a 10-step framework for promoting safe mobility and managing older patients’ post-discharge fall risk.
Also available is a Fact Sheet that summaries how the guide was developed and how other hospitals can build a similar inpatient fall prevention program.
The CDC also released a new toolkit to help partners promote ageing adult injury prevention. The toolkit offers quick facts, key messages, social media, and a sample letter to share with their partners about the Still Going Strong campaign. Still Going Strong is a positive messaging campaign that encourages ageing adults to age without injury and provides simple steps that ageing adults and their loved ones can take to prevent injuries.
The revised Outcome Measure Toolkit is now available to APTA Geriatrics members. The revision project had multiple purposes: to update the Outcome Measure Toolkit; to reassess recommendations based upon additional literature found; to correct and edit errors that were oversighted from the original Toolkit; to add information about references’ populations to the tables to assist with decision-making about tool use.
Key updates in the revision document:
Read the revised toolkit here: https://geriatricspt.org/special-interest-groups/balance-falls/Outcome-Measure-Toolkit/
by Jennifer Nash, APTA-Geri State Advocate for Nevada Click here to Download
The Balance and Falls Special Interest Group of the APTA Geriatrics developed this toolkit as an updated summary of current outcome measures related to balance and fall risk assessment. It is available, OPEN ACCESS here https://geriatricspt.org/special-interest-groups/balance-falls/Outcome-Measure-Toolkit
The Falls Prevention Awareness Toolkit developed by the Balance and Falls Special Interest Group of the APTA Geriatrics is available, OPEN ACCESS here https://geriatricspt.org/special-interest-groups/balance-falls/nfpad/
The resources provided within the toolkit are designed to assist clinicians and students in creating and/or improving their community-based falls prevention events by utilizing current evidence and a wide-variety of quality resources.
Every month, we send out an email to interested members with a quick summary of an aspect of balance and falls management. This email thread allows members to have topic specific communication as well as share experiences/ideas. We will also be posting the materials to our google drive which you can access at any time. Emails are sent out at the beginning of each month. If you wish to join the email chain and get the information before anyone else, email us at agptbalanceandfallssig@gmail.com .
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