Fall Prevention Month: Health Care Workers Play a Crucial Role
BY MARGUERITE THOMAS
Health care workers play a crucial role in preventing falls with older adults. Regardless of your work setting or health care
designation, there is much to be gained by joining the Fall Prevention Community of Practice (CoP) no-cost Loop communication platform to keep updated about evidence-informed and promising practices resources
and information.
The Loop website offers state-of-the-art resources in a number of ways, including expert webinar presenters with three upcoming November presentations related to:
• Reducing the risk of falls with a new generation of winter footwear
• Discussing the use of huddles following a fall in long-term care
• Learning from the Ontario Association of Optometry’s presentation about how vision affects falls and fall prevention related to double vision and with persons with vision issues and dementia issues.
All webinars are archived on Loop and can be watched anytime.
Biweekly newsletters feature topics such as:
• Promoting a website to strengthen your legs
• Accessing an inventory of fall prevention resources to support those living with dementia or cognitive impairment
• Encouraging effective hospital-based post fall interventions
• Learning more about impact absorbing flooring.
Loop is the go-to place for all things falls-related. A CoP is simply a group of people who come together to exchange information on a topic. Through the Loop communication platform, we support our members to build capacity in the prevention of falls and fall-related injuries. Loop began in 2015 and now has over 2,400 members including practitioners, caregivers, researchers, older adult groups, therapists, managers and program or policy planners working for the health care of older adults. CoP members from all across Canada and beyond make a commitment to support and learn from one another and to develop new knowledge to advance the field of practice.
With Loop membership you can:
• Network: Find an expert, mentor or collaborator
• Find answers: Harness the knowledge of our members
• Access evidence: The new knowledge centre helps find comprehensive, evidence-based information.
• Work together: Collaboration tools and private groups make working together online easy. Keep all your agendas, minutes and
documents in one place which only invitees can view. Because it is so handy, we keep the meeting notes and documents for planning the pan-Canadian Fall Prevention Month on Loop.
Additional resources are available in the toolkit on the Fall Prevention Month website. Fall Prevention Month, now in its fourth
year, is a campaign that encourages individuals and organizations from all across Canada to come together to coordinate fall prevention efforts for a greater impact. Among our national partners is Osteoporosis Canada, which will also be presenting a webinar Nov. 30 on preventing falls for patients with neurological impairment: One step at a time. Registration for all webinars is available on Loop.
Three local Fall Prevention Month initiatives were: the launch at Seaforth Long-Term Care Home and Retirement Community on
Nov. 6; the placement of posters, postcards and pamphlets at libraries in Grey, Bruce, Huron and Perth Counties and beyond and several articles, including the series in The Citizen.
Information and resources have also been shared for others to design their own programs. Check out the toolkit for information on programs, promotions, ideas for activities, statistics and other helpful resources. This year, for the first time we have added information and resources to avoid child injuries for children up to six years old.
Resource Links
• Loop: www.fallsloop.com to access all webinar registrations, archived webinars, upcoming events, knowledge products, discussions, private groups, workspaces and other members.
• Fall Prevention Month: www.fallpreventionmonth.ca to access the bilingual toolkit for both older adults and children (ages 0-6). Learn what others are doing all across Canada and beyond. Post your own events and initiatives.
• The Registered Nurses of Ontario Clinical Best Practice Guidelines: A wealth of knowledge on preventing falls in all settings and reducing injuries from falls – everything from assessments to universal precautions to policies. https://rnao.ca/bpg
• Putting the Brakes on Breaks: A bone health program with three main pillars: Fall prevention, osteoporosis identification and management and post-fracture care. http://www.rgpeo.com/media/79933/putting%20the%20brakes%20on%20breaks%20pt%201.pdf
• Contact marguerite@thomas.name with any questions or requests.