Delaware Coalition for Injury Prevention
Fall Prevention Team
Team Leader:
Carol Landry
Member Agencies:
American Red Cross, Bayhealth Medical Center, Beebe Medical Center, Christiana Care Health Services, Division of Services for Aging and Adults with Physical Disabilities, Foulk Manor North, Ingleside Retirement Apartments, Inc., Milford Parks and Peggy Mack, consultant.
Key Objective:
Long term goals include reducing fall-related fatalities by 2010 and reducing the rate of hip fractures in adults over age 65 years old throughFall Awareness Education programs in all three counties using multi-pronged initiatives.
Key 2008 Project Name:
Senior Fall Prevention Exercise Classes, Fall Awareness Programs, Public Service Announcements
Brief Project Description:
Senior fall prevention exercise classes were held as a follow-up to the 2007 Senior Aquatic Fall Prevention pilot project. Findings revealed that even though the project had been completed in August 2007, seniors continued to do some sort of exercise. Furthermore, there were no falls requiring hospitalization in the group from September 2007 through June 2008. This same group repeated the Senior Aquatic Fall Prevention Project during the summer of 2008. A comparison group was formed with seniors who only did land exercises. 30 participants in the water exercise group and 20 participants in the land-based group completed one-hour exercise classes twice a week for six weeks. Pre- and post-screening was completed with 33 seniors (25 aquatic and 8 land participants).
Public Service Announcements ( PSA’s) were developed emphasizing the importance of preventing falls among seniors. The 15-second PSA’s included informational resources for fall prevention. In conjunction with this promotion, sites for future fall prevention education programs are being identified.
Project Outcome:
The goal of decreasing falls serious enough to require hospitalization was successfully met. There were only five falls among the participants (two from the aquatic group and three from the land group). None of the falls required hospitalization. In both groups, improvements were noted in balance, endurance, mood, and ability to perform activities of daily living. Education about fall prevention continues through the PSA’s, which were submitted to four Delaware radio stations in September 2008. A list of Delaware nursing homes and assistive living facilities has been developed as potential future sites for fall prevention education programs.
