Falls Prevention Poster 1

Recently I did a series of falls prevention education sessions to residents in assisted living/sheltered accomodation around Sheffield and the above poster highlights some of the things that we discussed.

Falls prevention is a particular passion of mine by why?

According to the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, 30% of people aged 65 and over will fall at least once a year and for those over 80, it is over 50%. Falls are the number one reason older people are taken to the emergency department in a hospital. Therefore reducing the risk of falls is an essential for healthy aging and for supporting wellbeing in later life.

The gold-standard approach to falls prevention is an individualised approach where you and your environment is assessed to establish specific falls risk factors. Therefore the above advice is more generalised advice for individuals and families to consider when thinking about reducing the risk of falls.

One of the main reasons I wanted to do these sessions is because I want to dispell the myth that falling is something that becomes inevitable as you get older and to leave people empowered with knowledge that there are things that can be done to reduce the risk of falling.