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Resources: General
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES & WEB SITES
Caring.com
Caring.com features original content focused exclusively on eldercare and end-of-life matters. The site includes hundreds of articles and checklists on health, housing, finance, legal and family issues, and other caregiving concerns. The “Broken Hip” section of the site has a risk of hip fracture calculator, plus links to various articles on preventing falls.
Center for Healthy Aging
The National Council on Aging's Center for Healthy Aging has launched a Web site to provide aging service providers easy access to resources, such as manuals, toolkits, examples of model programs, and links to Web sites on topics related to healthy aging, including health promotion, disease prevention, and chronic disease management. In this manner, we are providing community-based organizations with resources necessary to implement evidence-based health promotion programs for older adults in their local communities. The three Falls Free™ documents are also posted on this Web site.
Connecticut Collaboration for Fall Prevention
Downloadable materials for public use (screening tools) as well as information sheets describing how to handle common fall risk factors such as medications, blood pressure drops on standing, and home fall hazards are available.
Fall Prevention Center of Excellence
The Fall Prevention Center of Excellence is the home of a California Fall Prevention Initiative. The Center provides information to both consumers and professionals on various topics relating to falls and fall prevention.
Home Safety Council Resources
The Home Safety Council is dedicated to helping prevent the nearly 21 million medical visits that occur on average each year from unintentional injuries in the home. Through national programs and partners across America, the Home Safety Council works to educate and empower families to take actions that help keep them safer in and around their homes.
Home Safety Council Expert Network
A regularly updated resource for fire, life safety, and public health experts that includes home safety education materials designed for use with older adult audiences – focusing on fall prevention and the other leading causes of preventable home injury.
Home Sweet (Safe) Home
Adapted from the Jefferson Area Board for the Aging (JABA), SeniorNavigator.com offers this informational Web page for seniors and those who care about them.
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control
Designed for fall prevention programs, A Tool Kit to Prevent Senior Falls includes fact sheets, graphs, and brochures about falls and fall prevention for older adults.
National Resource Center on Supportive Housing and Home Modification
A university-based (University of Southern California), non-profit organization dedicated to promoting aging in place and independent living for persons of all ages and abilities, the Center offers a vision for the future as well as practical strategies and materials for policymakers, practitioners, consumers, manufacturers, suppliers, and researchers. The Center is an information clearinghouse for resources on home modification. The site links to several home safety checklists.
National Safety Council
The National Safety Council (NSC) is a leading safety and health advocate dedicated to protecting life and promoting health; it identified falls among the elderly as a leading concern in its Safety Agenda for the Nation released in 2000. This site offers several resources and materials.
Rebuilding Together
Rebuilding Together is an organization that rebuilds houses for low-income homeowners such as the elderly or persons with disabilities. Their mission is to provide houses that promote warmth, independence, and safety. A home safety checklist is available.
Safe Steps Program Materials
The Home Safety Council has developed the national Safe Steps program designed to educate older adults and their family members on how to reduce their risk of failing dangers. The Safe Steps program, which was distributed free of charge to 5,000 older adult activity centers nationwide, includes an instructional video, educational wall poster, and activities that can help track medications, exercise and assess overall home safety. All program materials are available on their Web site.
PUBLICATION RESOURCES
California Blueprint for Fall Prevention
A white paper entitled "Preventing Falls in Older Californians: State of the Art". This work, funded by the Archstone Foundation, (a private grant making organization, whose mission is to contribute towards the preparation of society in meeting the needs of an aging population), served as the framework for the National Falls Free™ initiative.
Compendium of Research Papers
Updated research papers addressing the impact of falls and fall related injuries and providing evidence-based strategies to address falls prevention.
Environmental Scan
The final report for this survey of national organizations and agencies outlines the findings and presents program information on each of the organizations.
Home Safety Council Research: The State of Home Safety in America™
This informative 2004 study of unintentional injuries in the home environment includes a section on falls and fall related injuries. The purpose of the report is to document the (a) occurrence of fatal and nonfatal unintentional home injury in America, (b) societal costs associated with home injury, and (c) safety issues and protective practices associated with injury at home.
National Action Plan
The National Action Plan was developed through consensus in a national summit of 58 national organizations, professional associations, and federal agencies working in the area of fall prevention. The plan contains 36 strategies and action steps that are based on the available research and the combined experience of attending organizations, which are proposed to affect falls and fall related injuries through collaboration.
Falls Free™ E- Newsletter
Produced by the National Council on Aging’s Center for Healthy Aging, with support from the Archstone Foundation and the Home Safety Council, the Falls Free™ E-Newsletter is a bi-monthly newsletter designed to enhance communications among Falls Free™ Coalition members.
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION WEB SITES AND RESOURCES
AARP: Home Design
Providing help to seniors who wish to stay in their own homes but are facing mobility limitations, this AARP Web page features ideas for making the home more safe and accessible.
American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS): Guidelines for Preventing Falls
The AAOS provides simple tip sheets for reducing the risk of falls and fall related injuries, including home assessment tools.
American Board of Internal Medicine
The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) is linking their new module (see Tools You Can Use) with the Merck Institute on Aging and Health and the Home Safety Council. The organizations are all members of the Falls Free™ Coalition.
American Geriatrics Society
The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) recently updated its landmark Clinical Guidelines in concert with several Falls Free™ organizations including the American Physical Therapy Association, the American Occupational Therapy Association, the American Board of Internal Medicine, American Medical Association, American Society of Consultant Pharmacists, the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, and the American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons. This collaborative action is a direct result of the Falls Free™ Summit.
American Occupational Therapy Association
Professional guidelines, tools and practice resources, in addition to consumer fact sheets on fall prevention.
American Physical Therapy Association
Professional guidelines, tools and practice resources, as well as a consumer brochure What You Need to Know About Balance and Falls.
Bone Health and Osteoporosis: A Report of the Surgeon General
This first-ever Surgeon General's Report on bone health and osteoporosis illustrates the large burden that bone disease places on our nation and its citizens. Weakened bone health can lead to more significant injuries associated with falling.
MedlinePlus: Falls
Presented by the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, this Web site provides a comprehensive list of links to various sites and documents on falls and falls prevention, including: latest news, research articles, statistical information, prevention/ screening, and related issues. A link to PubMed’s most recent listing of research articles on falls is also provided.
ProFaNE
The ProFaNE Online Community is an active working group of Health Care Practitioners, Researchers and Public Health Specialists dedicated to the issue of prevention of falls and improvement of postural stability amongst elderly people in Europe and beyond. ProFaNE focuses and co-ordinates ongoing European clinical, research and technology developments related to prevention of falls amongst elderly people.
PROGRAMS DEVELOPED TO ADDRESS FALL RISK FACTORS
A variety of programs are availability for implementation in community settings designed to address one or more of the risk factors.
A Matter of Balance
The Matter of Balance program was developed by the Roybal Center for Research in Applied Gerontology at Boston University and the New England Research Institutes with funding from the National Institute on Aging. In this initiative, the Partnership for Healthy Aging has modified the program delivery to include lay leaders, which is proving to be effective in disseminating this fear of falling program in Maine and several other states.
American Geriatrics Society: Falls in Older Adults
This Falls in Older Adults Management in Primary Practice Toolkit is designed for health care practitioners to help manage high risk patients in Primary Practice.
FallProof!: A comprehensive balance and mobility training program
FallProof!, designed by researchers at California State University, Fullerton, offers a practical manual that blends the latest theory into practical applications. It will prove a valuable resource for physical activity instructors and health care professionals working with older adults in physical activity settings, and it will also be helpful for assessing and designing programs to improve mobility and balance.
HEROS© Program, Temple University
Health, Education, Research and Outreach for Seniors (HEROS©) provides educational materials to a variety of stakeholders to affect fall risk assessment and intervention. Materials are available in a variety of languages.
National Center for Patient Safety 2004 Falls Toolkit
The Falls Toolkit designed for health care implementation in health care facilities available on this site includes:
• Designing a falls prevention and management program
• Effective interventions for high-risk fall patients
• Implementing hip protectors for high-risk fall patients
• Educating patients, families and staff on falls and fall-injury prevention.
National Resource Center for Safe Aging
Located at San Diego State University, this injury prevention Web site includes fall prevention materials and programs that are suitable for a variety of stakeholders. It is funded by the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
Multifactorial and Physical Activity Programs for Fall Prevention
An issue brief describing 6 community-based multifactorial fall prevention programs and 8 physical activity programs that are based on or adapted from empirical research in order to guide professionals in choosing and replicating existing programs.
Preventing Falls: What Works
CDC published a compendium of effective community-based interventions from around the world categorizing them as exercise-based interventions, home modification interventions, or multifaceted interventions.
Preventing Falls: How to Develop Community-based Fall Prevention Programs for Older Adults
This CDC “how-to” guide is designed for community-based organizations who are interested in developing their own effective fall prevention programs. This guide is designed to be a practical and useful tool, and it provides guidelines on program planning, development, implementation, and evaluation.
Standing Strong
The Standing Strong Program was developed in response to the National Blueprint to Increase Physical Activity Among Adults Aged 50 and Older. The Standing Strong Program provides senior centers and retirement communities a scientifically-based and easy-to-instruct program that translates research into practice, and ultimately increases strength and balance among older adults.
Step By Step
Step By Step strives to incorporate a sustainable, evidence-based, multifactorial fall prevention program within the daily operation of senior centers by enhancing fall prevention-related knowledge and behavior and by building or enhancing relationships between senior centers and community and health care providers. The intervention includes:
• Fall risk assessment at local senior centers
o Sessions last at least one hour, depending on number of risk factors identified.
o Senior Center nurse assessors provide interventions at the time of baseline assessment.
• Practical, teachable interventions for each fall risk factor identified
o “Passbook” for older adults, with easy-to-read tips on how to address and reduce each risk factor
o Demonstration of how to perform balance exercises
o Participants encouraged to engage at appropriate exercise level.
Step By Step Research Article:
Baker, D.I., Gottschalk, M., Bianco, Luann M. (2007). Step by step: Integrating evidence-based fall-risk management into senior centers. The Gerontologist, 47, 548-554.
Stepping On
The Stepping On program aims to improve fall self-efficacy, encourage behavioral change, and reduce falls. Key aspects of the program are improving lower limb balance and strength, home and community environmental and behavioral safety, regular visual screening, making adaptations to low vision, and encouraging medication review.
Stepping On Research Article:
Clemson, L., Cumming., R.G., Kendig, H., Swann, M., Heard, R., & Taylor, K. (2004). The effectiveness of a community-based program for reducing the incidence of falls in the elderly: A randomized trial. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 52, 1487-1494.
Tai Chi
Tai chi is a noncompetitive, self-paced system of gentle physical exercise. Tai Chi is performed as a defined series of postures or movements in a slow, graceful manner. Each movement or posture flows into the next without pausing.
Previous research findings have demonstrated the efficacy of Tai Chi exercise in improving balance and decreasing falls among older adults. However, it is not clear whether the general community can readily implement or adopt these training protocols.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is funding a program in Oregon to translate an evidence-based Tai Chi intervention into a user-friendly resource package for communities to be used with adults 60 years and older who are physically mobile with or without assistive devices. Researchers will translate, implement, and evaluate this proposed fall prevention program and evaluation instruments in collaboration with local nonprofit senior service providers and an expert panel.
Targeted end users of this intervention are community-dwelling adults ages 60 and older who will participate fully in all stages of program evaluation. A subsequent 12-week program will be implemented in two communities in Oregon and will be evaluated by participating older adults and by senior service providers, with respect to reach, adoption, implementation, and maintenance.
The results of this translation and dissemination research will provide an effective, evidence-based fall prevention package for older adults that can be implemented in the community setting. This research will also provide important public health information about the most effective dissemination strategies for program reach, adoption, feasibility, and acceptability.
CDC Overview of the Tai Chi Program
Oregon Research Institute Overview of the Tai Chi Program
Tai Chi Research Articles:
Li F, Harmer P, McAuley E, et al. (2001). An evaluation of the effects of Tai Chi exercise on physical function among older persons: a randomized controlled trial. Ann Behav Med. 23, 139–146.
Li F., Harmer P, Fisher K.J., McAuley E. (2004). Tai Chi: Improving functional balance and predicting subsequent falls in older persons. Med Sci Sports Exerc.36, 2046–2052.
Li, F., Fisher, K. J., Harmer, P., and McAuley, E. (2005). Falls self-efficacy as a mediator of fear of falling in an exercise intervention for older adults. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 60, 34-40.
Li, F., Fisher, K. J., Harmer, P., McAuley, E., Chaumeton, N., Eckstrom, E., and Wilson, N. (2005). Tai Chi and fall reductions on older adults: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences, 60A(2), 187–194.
GENERAL AGING RESOURCES
Archstone Foundation
The Archstone Foundation is a grant making organization that was created in order to help society meet the needs of the elderly. The site provides useful resources and links to grant projects.
Eldercare Locator
This public service of the U.S. Administration on Aging connects older Americans and their caregivers with sources of information on senior services. The service links those who need assistance with state and local area agencies on aging and community-based organizations that serve older adults and their caregivers.
Firstgov.gov for Seniors
This federal Web site houses wide-ranging links to support older adults and professional service providers.
National Council on Aging
The National Council on Aging is a national network of organizations and individuals dedicated to improving the health and independence of older persons and increasing their continuing contributions to communities, society and future generations.
National Family Caregiver Support Program--Professionals & Providers
This resource from the U.S. Administration on Aging is a tool to support professionals and providers who work with and serve older adults. An Elders and Caregivers Resource page is also offered.
U.S. Administration on Aging
Search by state to identify state and area agencies on aging.
