Each year, there are over 37 million falls, 9 million resulting in injuries, 3 million in emergency department visits, 1 million in hospitalizations, and 36,000 deaths according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Foundation. Falls are often preventable if you know what to screen for and what the risk factors for falls include. The CDC Foundation launched a toolkit that includes Falls Free Check-ups. The goal of the CDC’s toolkit and resources is to prevent and protect older adults from sustaining falls and fall-related injuries by developing and implementing a risk factor prevention program. You can learn more about the program and the CDC Foundation here.
In addition, the CDC Foundation hosted a webinar on screening and prevention which highlighted the importance of using a screening program to identify potential warning indicators of high-risk residents. The tools reviewed were developed by the CDC foundation to prevent and reduce older adult falls. The webinar, titled Screening and Prevention: Tools for Reducing Older Adult Falls, can be found
here.
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