Nova Scotia Falls Prevention Update

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Nova Scotia Falls Prevention Update

• Preventing Falls Together Conference
• October 29, 2009
• Suzanne Baker

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• The leading causes of falls are
  preventable with a coordinated prevention effort.

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Seniors Falls Facts

• 33 of community dwelling seniors fall yearly
• 50 of falls result in minor injury
• 5-25 result in serious injury
• Seniors have 9X more falls injuries compared to
  those at younger ages
• Falls the most common cause of injury for
  seniors

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More Seniors Falls Facts

• Falls cause gt 90 of hip fractures
• 15-20 of those with hip fractures will die
• 50 of all nursing home admissions
• Falls leading cause of injury hospital
  admissions and ER visits

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Fall Injuries the Surface
Below
Deaths
Hospitalizations
Emergency Dept visits
Treated in a physicians office
Treated at home or never treated

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What causes a fall?
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Leadership, Infrastructure Partnership

• GOAL Appropriate and adequate leadership,
  infrastructure, and partnerships sustain all
  aspects of the Strategic Framework.
• Activities
• Providing ongoing leadership and support at
  provincial and DHA levels (i.e. planning support
  and advocacy with DHAs, etc)
• Provincial Intersectoral Falls Prevention
  Committee
• Funding for a part-time position to facilitate
  coordination among districts and provide expert
  advice to province and DHAs
• Funding from HPP for a Tri-District team to
  participate in the National Collaborative on
  Falls in Long-Term Care
• Increased funding for Preventing Falls Together
• Canadian Falls Prevention Curriculum Delivery and
  Leadership

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Home Support Exercise Program (HSEP)

• Evidence-based physical activity intervention for
  frail elderly
• Canadian Centre for Activity and Aging
  (University of Western Ontario)
• Specifically designed for implementation by home
  support workers
• Proposal (SSH and Continuing Care supported by
  Home Support Agencies)

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Awareness and Understanding

• GOAL Nova Scotians are aware of the issue of
  seniors falls and fall-related injuries and
  understand how to prevent them.
• Activities
• Provided social marketing workshops to Falls
  Prevention Coalitions and other partners
• Support for annual falls prevention week
  (Provincial Proclamation)
• Ongoing education and meetings with policy makers
  to raise issue of falls (DoH and HPP Senior
  Leadership)
• Interprofessional education (Colleges and
  Universities)

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Education

• GOAL Seniors, care providers, organizations,
  and communities have the skills and knowledge to
  reduce the risk of falls and fall-related
  injuries.
• Activities
• Canadian Falls Prevention Curriculum delivery and
  leadership (by mid-June, more than 250 people
  will be certified in the CFPC)
• Support for Tri-District project
• Funding for Red Cross H.E.L.P. program to
  incorporate falls prevention within their
  initiative
• Preventing Falls Together Toolkit

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Canadian Falls Prevention Curriculum

• The Department of Health Promotion and
  Protection, in collaboration with their seniors
  falls prevention partners adopted this curriculum
  and training began in February 2008.
• During the course, participants will learn about
• the nature and scope of seniors falls
• the complex causes of falls, the modifiable risk
  factors, and how to identify seniors at increased
  risk of falling
• evidence-based falls risk assessment tools
• best practice falls prevention interventions
• applying a practical program planning model to
  the design and implementation of falls prevention
  initiatives
• evaluating the effectiveness of falls prevention
  programs

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Supportive Environments Policy

• GOAL Supportive environments are created and
  nurtured by healthy public policies that promote
  health and reduce the risk of falls and
  fall-related injuries.
• Activities
• Canadian Falls Prevention Curriculum delivery and
  leadership
• Funding for part-time position to facilitate
  coordination among districts and provide expert
  advice to province and DHAs
• Strategy for Positive Aging
• Physical Activity and Older Adults

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Knowledge Development Exchange

• GOAL Community action and the decisions of
  policy makers are informed by timely collection,
  analysis, and dissemination of data and research
  on seniors falls.
• Activities
• Funding for Dalhousie University and South Shore
  Health falls research partnership
• Nova Scotia involved in national initiative to
  improve collection and dissemination of seniors
  fall-related data (standardization of collection
  tools, definitions, and data reports)
• Collaborator on CIHR Grant Proposal Canadian
  Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA)-Injury Team
  (IT) initiative
• Continue to share and promote the Seniors Falls
  Data Report
• Canadian Falls Prevention Curriculum Delivery and
  Leadership

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Research Initiative

• Partnership between South Shore Health and
  Dalhousie University, funded by Health Promotion
  and Protection
• Addresses the effectiveness of processes used in
  a rural District Health Authority to develop and
  implement a complex health initiative, namely
  Seniors Falls Prevention.
• Entering the second phase of research, where 3-5
  teams taking action on falls will be included in
  the study.

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Provincial Falls Prevention Network
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New Required Organizational Practices for 2008

• New GoalReduce the risk of injuries resulting
  from client falls
• New ROPimplement and evaluate a falls prevention
  strategy to minimize the impact of client falls
• Falls prevention strategy
• Population at risk for falls
• Specific needs
• Evaluation
• Improvements

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Potential Required Organizational Practices for
2011

• Least Restraint Policy
• Home Risk Assessments

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Provincial Falls Prevention District Network

• Purpose
• To provide a forum for the DHA and IWK acute care
  facilities to collaborate on the development and
  implementation of falls prevention policies,
  tools, resources, data collection, and
  initiatives.
• Scope
• The focus of the network will be on the acute
  care/hospital setting.

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Strategy 1

• To establish a network of DHA leaders and staff
  to facilitate greater collaboration and sharing
  of falls prevention information, tools, policies
  and programs among the districts. The scope of
  the network includes the continuum of care.

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Strategy 2

• Developing a virtual (web-based) central forum
  for the exchange of best practices and evidence
  related to falls prevention as well as ongoing
  networking and problem-solving.

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Strategy 3

• Collaboratively develop and recommend
  standardized evidence based policies, data
  collection processes, risk assessment and
  intervention tools for the DHA.

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Strategy 4

• Developing guidelines for evaluating existing and
  future tools, interventions, and policies.

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Challenges

• Changing Behaviours
• Educate
• Change practice
• Create an environment that balances risk and best
  practice for the high risk patient
• Creating a Senior Friendly Environment

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Contact Information

• Suzanne Baker
• Falls Prevention Coordinator
• Department of Health
• Promotion and Protection/South
• Shore Health
• Phone [phone] x3193
• Emailsbaker_at_ssdha.nshealth.ca