Resources on Fall Prevention

What You Need to Know About Balance and Falls
Click here to access an Adobe pdf file that discusses how your body maintains its balance; common problems with balance seen in older adults; and advice and exercises for improving balance and preventing falls. The brochure was prepared by the American Physical Therapy Association.

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. It also has a policy discussion of "Falls Among Older Persons and the Role of the Home: An Analysis of Cost, Incidence, and Potential Savings from Home Modification" at http://www.aarp.org/research/housing-mobility/accessibility/aresearch-import-797-INB49.html.

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/ncipc/pub-res/toolkit/toolkit.htm.

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.

The Do-able Renewable Home is a website that gives ideas to make the kitchen and bath more accessible and stairs and ramps safer. It is a reprint of an AARP publication "Making Your Home Fit Your Needs" and can be found at http://www.homemods.org/library/drhome/.

The Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access "promotes a collection of products from a variety of companies that place emphasis Universal Design." Viewing the gallery suggests possibilities for designing homes that are accessible, even if the highlighted companies are not used. http://www.ap.buffalo.edu/idea/Brightideas/index.asp.

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 website BDDiabetes.com 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. Click here for more information.

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.