What Really Is Fall Prevention?

 In this blog, we will be discussing about what Fall Prevention really is and what are some prevention solutions that are used to prevent falls. When I hear Fall Prevention, I automatically think about helping older people and removing any obstacles so they don't fall. But it's much more complicated than that. 

Fall Prevention is defined as, "guidelines and procedures adapted in order to identify person at risk of fall, and to provide preventive measures in order to reduce fall risk and thereby also to reduce falls and fall related injuries."

As we get older, our risk of falling increases. Every elderly person has a fear of falling. However, there are measures to be taken to understand how much risk does a person have of falling and to improve mobility. First off, some nursing homes or senior care facilities have physical therapy rooms where they have a sensor that detects the fall risk and so the physical therapist recommends certain exercises to improve mobility. If you or your relative are not living in one of these care facilities, there are also various apps and wearable watches or sensors that help you complete exercises to improve cognitive and physical mobility. These apps are great if you live in your own house without assistance but want to improve your mobility to decrease your risk of falling. Some of these apps also detect your movement to make sure you are on the right track.

More sophisticated sensors are also used in senior care facility settings or even hospital settings that have an alerting feature. Some of these solutions even alert the nurses before a fall happens. VirtuSense Technologies is a great example of this. VirtuSense is an artificial intelligence tech company that design and sell these types of sensors that proactively prevents a fall before it even happens. Their various products can be used in both post-acute care settings such as senior care facilities, as well as acute-care settings such as hospitals. The sensor detects movement of the patient and alert the nurse 30 seconds before the patient attempts to exit the bed or chair. 

We talked about what fall prevention is and what various solutions are there to prevent falls and improve mobility. Next time, we will be talking about tips on preventing falls in seniors.