Resources on Fall Prevention

A Patient's Guide to Preventing Falls
Click here to access an Adobe pdf pamphlet from the American Geriatrics Society. It provides suggetions on what you can do to prevent falls and what your doctor can do to assess your risk. Recommendations may include an exercise program with balance training. Brochure was prepared by the American Geriatrics Society.

Websites

AARP website has a "Rate Your Home" section addresing barrier free housing at http://www.aarp.org/families/home_design/rate_home/.

National Council on Aging's Center for Healthy Aging has a Fall Prevention page at http://www.healthyagingprograms.org/content.asp?sectionid=98.

The Fall Prevention Center for Excellence shares fall prevention information at http://www.stopfalls.org/basics/.

CDC's Center for Injury Prevention and Control includes a tool kit to prevent senior falls and can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/falls/index.html

The National Institutes on Health website has a page dedicated to information on "Falls and Older Adults". The page is found at http://nihseniorhealth.gov/falls/toc.html. It includes information on prevention, risk factors, and what to do if you fall.

Homemods.org is a university-based and non-profit effort, dedicated to promoting aging in place and independent living for persons of all ages and abilities. It offers training and education opportunities for professionals who wish to respond to the increasing demand for home modification services. It also serves as an information clearinghouse on home modification to equip professionals and consumers with a comprehensive inventory of resources such as a National Directory of Home Modification and Repair Resources. http://www.homemods.org.

The Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access "IDeA Center is dedicated to making environments and products more usable, safer and healthier" and promotes "universal design" to increase aging in place. http://www.ap.buffalo.edu/idea.

Florida Alliance for Assistive Services and Technology (http://faast.org/) provides a device loan program to enable people to try an assistive device for 30 days to see if it helps.

The BD Diabetes website has a special section on Diabetes Care for Older Adults. All of the menu items on the left are related to this topic. Under "Special Topics" is information on diabetes as a risk factor for falling.

The website of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons features a home safety checklist that can be used to prevent falls. According to the site, "Each year, more than 734,000 people over 65 are treated in hospital emergency rooms for injuries associated with stairs, bathtubs, furniture, carpeting and other products seniors live with and use every day. Thousands of these injuries are related to falls: 3,000 seniors each year fall while standing on chairs; 6,800 seniors trip on rugs or carpet runners." The checklist helps make people aware of environmental changes that can help prevent falls and is available at http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00123