White Paper:
Implementing a fall prevention program
December 20, 2021
The Challenge Industry surveys suggest that up to 75% of senior living communities have implemented some type of fall prevention program. Unfortunately, there is evidence that this explosive growth in fall prevention programs have not been effective in reversing the epidemic of falls among older adults and leads to loss of physical activity, increased loneliness, accelerated cognitive decline, and higher risk of cancer, heart disease, and dementia.
Key Issues
- Common and popular fall risk assessments are mostly unable to discriminate between fallers and non-fallers,. As a result, fall prevention programs tend to be reactive
- Current fall prevention interventions force participants to choose between short-term individualized therapy provided by a high-cost physical therapist or longer-term wellness activity provided in a low-cost group setting. Neither arrangement is optimum in preventing falls over a large population
- Overemphasis on environmental mitigation and physical exercise without addressing the role of executive function in balance and gait
- Adherence rates are relatively low, around 60 to 70%, especially for those interventions that may take several months to show demonstrable effect.
- Current practices are not very effective. Numerous meta-analysis studies have shown reductions in falls of only 25 to 30%, which plummets to 8 to 10% when adherence rates are below 70%
Steps
- Identify
- Implement
- Optimize
- Increase
- Improve
Conclusion Implementing training and optimizing individual sessions can lead participants to higher success rates and reduced risk of falls. With a proven technology such as GaitBetter you can reduce falls by up to 80% while improving quality of life.