Did you know that every year millions of elderly people (those 65 and up) may experience a detrimental fall? One out three elderly people fall each year. However, less than half consult their doctor after a fall. Did you know that falling once doubles your chance of falling again? It crucial that you know why it happens and what you can do to prevent future accidents.
Why does this happen?
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
- Falls are the leading cause of fatal injury along with being the most common cause of non-fatal trauma hospital admissions among elderly adults.
- There are almost 3 million fall-related injuries treated in hospital emergency rooms every year.
- Every 11 seconds, an elderly person is treated for a fall while every 19 minutes one dies.
- There are over 800,000 hospitalizations and 27,000 deaths every year due to falls.
- Falling is expensive! In 2013, the total cost of fall injuries was almost $35 billion. This number is expect to increase as the population ages and may reach $68 billion by the year 2020.
Regardless of injury, a growing number of older adults fear falling and as a result limit their social engagement and activities. This results in further physical decline, isolation, helplessness, and depression among those 65 and up.
Research has identified that there are many risk factors that contribute to these fall statistics. Lower body weakness, Vitamin D deficiency, walking and balance difficulties, improper use of medicine, such as sedatives and antidepressants, vision problems, foot pain resulting from bad footwear, and last but not least, the environment and hazards associated with it.
Injuries from Falls
The most common injury from a fall is a fracture in the hip, pelvis, spine, hand, ankle, arm, or leg. The hip is the most serious type of injury from a fall and is the leading cause of injury and loss of elderly independence. The healthier an elderly adult who has been hospitalized in a nursing home for a broken hip is, the more likely they are able to live on their own after proper treatment and rehabilitation. Most of those who cannot return to an independent lifestyle after such injuries had physical and/or mental disabilities and many needed long-term nursing home care.
How Trilogy Therapy Services can help prevent falls in nursing homes?
Fall prevention that occurs in nursing homes presents a host of challenges. It requires not only the combination of medical treatment, rehab, and environmental changes, but proper fall prevention can be implemented at the staff, organization, and patient levels. The most effective way to intervene is to address multiple factors with the nursing home staff. The therapists at Trilogy Therapy Services assess patients after a fall to identify and address risk factors associated with underlying medical conditions, making changes in their nursing home environment to make it easier for them to move around safely, provide them with hip pads to prevent hip fractures, create and structure exercise programs to improve balance, flexibility, walking ability, and strength in their nursing home, and teach other residents who are not impaired strategies to avoid their own potential hazardous situations.
Treatment
Trilogy Therapy Services focus is to prevent injuries to those who are at risk for falls. We will put together a comprehensive physical therapy fall evaluation, which includes, but not limited to: a thorough history, balance assessment, functional mobility assessment, and muscle strength evaluation. Once the various impairments have been identified our experienced physical therapy team works with the nursing home patient and/or elderly person to develop a treatment plan that will help avoid future falls. The treatments that our nursing home patients receive consist of balance training, education on fall prevention, and strength/endurance training. Our ultimate goal is for our nursing home patients to transition from our program into their own home environment for the long-term.
Contact Trilogy Therapy Services, especially if you experience a fall injury regardless of your age. Our experienced team of therapists will choose treatments to help restore normal movement and aid in getting you back to your normal daily life. And if you are in the Russellville, Dover, Little Rock and all other central Arkansas areas, please give us a call at: (479) 331-3303 or come visit us at our location: 8952 Market Street, Suite 7b, Dover, AR 72837
We look forward to seeing you soon and have a great week.