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Falls Prevention

Reports

The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) and the British Geriatrics Society (BGS) has just released new clinical guidelines aimed at preventing serious and potentially deadly falls among older adults. Roughly a third of Americans 65 and older fall each year, and 10 to 20 percent of those who fall suffer moderate to severe injuries that limit their mobility and threaten their independence. Fall-related injuries are one of the leading causes of death for older Americans, accounting for more than 10,000 deaths annually.

To see the clinical guidelines go to: http://www.americangeriatrics.org/education/prevention_of_falls.shtml

The CDC, National Center for Injury Control and Prevention, Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention has posted new resources for community based interventions to prevent falls among older adults.  http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/preventingfalls/

Falls Free National Action Plan: 36 falls prevention strategies generated by the falls free summit.

National Expert Meeting on Qi Gong & Tai Chi-consensus report is a resource for implementing these programs with older adults.

Prevention of Falls & Injuries Among the Elderly: A special report from the office of the Provincial Health Officer, 2004.

Prevention of Falls in Older Californians Pre-conference White Paper describes interventions to reduce risk for falls and the costs and burden of falls. The companion Conference Proceedings document is based on the presentations and input received through the conference.

Data

The CDC provides a data source with charts, tables and maps describing the burden of falls with injury and mortality data by state. Arizona continues to have one of the highest fatal fall injury rates in the country for both men and women.

The Injury Control Resource Information Network provides this reference site for ICD 10 & 9, and E-codes for falls.

The National Resource Center for Safe Aging has a national and regional data on injury prevention and falls

Tools

CDC has posted a compendium of interventions for use by public health practitioners and community-based agencies.  

Preventing Falls: What Works A CDC Compendium of Effective Community-based Interventions from Around the World http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/preventingfalls/CDCCompendium_030508.pdf

Preventing Falls: How to Develop Community-based Fall Prevention Programs for Older Adultshttp://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/preventingfalls/CDC_Guide.pdf

The Fall Prevention Center of Excellence is the first stop for professionals looking for information, tools and resources related to comprehensive, multifactorial falls prevention: http://www.stopfalls.org/service_providers/index.shtml.

For those interested in physiological falls risk assessments, view the videos illustrating use of the FAB, Berg Balance Scale, & multidirectional reach tests found at: http://www.stopfalls.org/service_providers/sp_bm.shtml The Balance Assessment Handbook is a resource intended to be used in conjunction with the videos.

CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control has a resource-rich Falls Prevention web page where media tools, educational brochures, links and more can be found easily.

U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs has a fall prevention tool kit with a comprehensive program notebook, evaluation and assessment tools, media tools and other resources. Visit: http://www.va.gov/ncps/SafetyTopics/fallstoolkit/index.html.

Central Michigan University's Bridges Fall & Balance Center for Assessment & Rehabilitation has many downloadable brochures on many topics such as how to talk to your physician about falls: http://www.chp.cmich.edu/bridges/FBC_1.htm.

Matter of Balance is a very popular falls prevention program and this Boston University Web site has a video exploring fear of falling and other products available. 

NCOA's Center for Healthy Aging Falls Prevention web site full of resources such as the Falls-free newsletter, checklists, guides, fact sheets and brochures.

Home Safety Council's Safe Steps Program offers many tools and resources for home modification and falls prevention.

The Queensland’s Government provides a web site - http://www.health.qld.gov.au/stayonyourfeet/