Home Health Care: Advancing Your Skill Set Update on Falls Guidelines

by | Jan 17, 2011 | All Blogs | 5 comments

Entry By: Eileen Bach, PT, M.Ed, DPT

Pasted here is a Medscape article summarizing the release this week of the updated Falls Guidelines from the American Geriatrics Society and the British Geriatric Society. The revised guidelines update the original Falls guidelines from 2001. The multifactorial guidelines are endorsed by many groups such as the AMA, APTA, AOTA and more.

New recommendations cover footwear, functional abilities, Vitamin D supplementation and more. One multifactor to always be considered is exercise, and updated citations on exercise for balance and strength, physical therapy,  and tai chi can be found in the guidelines. Here is a link to the article (membership may be required to view).

Falls are a significant concern in older adults and falls are certainly a concern in the home health care setting, warranting a required assessment and process measure for patients 65 and older.  The AGS website has the entire set of recommendations and detailed information regarding how the evidence was rated by the panel of experts convened.

Of course, the snowy, cold weather over much of the US the past 2 weeks makes falls even more likely!

Be safe,

Eileen

5 Comments

  1. Jamie Jordan on June 28, 2012 at 2:59 pm

    Hello Eileen!

    I want to touch base with you and any other medical professional that does education on fall prevention. We have designed a new style of walking cane, the flexSTICK, that provides improved dynamic stability and comfort as it has three spring loaded legs that ‘flex’, expanding & contracting as the user ambulates. This allows the legs to maintain constant contact with the ground, eliminating wobble.

    I would like to find someone who would be interested in doing a study on balance improvement/fall prevention with the flexSTICK.

    Thanks for your attention!

  2. Margaret on January 18, 2011 at 11:25 am

    Please inform me of schedules for San Francisco Ca
    & Clearwater FL 34695 areas

    Is the Homecare fall guidelines being offered in Fla soon ?
    Sorry I missed it yesterday in San Francisco area.
    Margaret

    • Eileen Bach on January 18, 2011 at 11:52 am

      Margaret, my seminar covers Home Health care and falls is one of many topics covered. If you are looking to learn more specifically about falls, there are several all day courses on Falls offered by Summit- you can find these easily using the search function.

      My home care seminar – Home Health Care: Advancing Your Skill Set will be in San Francisco in April – April 18th I believe, as well as several other cities in northern CA in mid-April. I do not have any FL dates scheduled at this time.

      Please check back on the Summit website as my schedule – and all other speaker’s- gets updated frequently.

      Thanks,
      Eileen

  3. Julie on January 18, 2011 at 8:50 am

    Eileen, Are you coming back to Arizona? I would love to learn more about providing home health care in 2011. I have a couple other therapists I know would be interested in attending as well.

    Julie

    • Eileen Bach on January 18, 2011 at 11:55 am

      Hi Julie, I do not have any firm dates yet for AZ. I am still working on setting up my schedule for the summer and fall but do not expect that to be finalized for another month or so.

      Thank you for your interest – much appreciated!

      Best,
      Eileen