New and Noteworthy
2021 Prevent Falls Challenge
Deadline for submission extended! Students - win money for your student organization!
Competition objectives To increase awareness of roles of physical therapists in decreasing injurious falls within the community; and To provide physical therapy students with a real experience that strengthens their passion towards the profession.
Competition Rules - Video Theme is to answer one of the following questions:
- What are the different fall recovery training exercises that you have used in the clinic to prevent or educate your patients on falls?
- What are some tests and measures that you have used in the clinic to assess or measure fear of falling in your patients?
Video should be a minimum of 30 seconds and no longer than 120 seconds in length
Once the videos are created and submitted, they will be posted to the ANPT Balance and Falls Special Interest Group (SIG) Facebook Page and Twitter Account
Multiple videos per school will be allowed.
To win, “LIKE” and “SHARE” the original video. 1pt for a “Like”, 3pts for a “Share” or “Retweet.” - Include the hashtag: #fallpreventionchallenge in your “share” or “retweet.”
A leaderboard with the totals will run on the ANPT Balance and Falls SIG facebook page.
The video that gets the most points combined will receive $500 from the ANPT Balance and Falls SIG. The money will be given to the DPT class to use towards future fundraising efforts for the students (example: Combined Sections Meeting)
Competition Timeline/Important Deadlines:
- Competition Begins: September 20th
- Applications with Supporting Materials due: November 15
- Review of submissions by APTA Balance and Falls SIG Competition Committee: November 16 - 25
- Videos posted on Social Media Platforms: November 26
- “Likes” and “Shares/Retweets” Obtained: November 26th –December 24th
- Announcement of Winner: December 30th
Videos should be submitted directly to BalanceFallsSIG@gmail.com - Video format should be MOV or MP4. - Please include School, Student Names, Title of Video and a short description of the video with the email submission
After the video is uploaded to Facebook and Twitter you will receive an email with links to share with your school so that they can further share the video
Daemen College Wins 2019 Fall Prevention Challenge
The second annual fall prevention challenge video contest has wrapped up with Daemen College winning for 2019 https://youtu.be/zR59uwoRx8I. The ANPT Balance & Falls SIG sponsored a student video contest in concert with National Fall Prevention & Awareness Day, which is the first day of Fall each year. The contest was to create a video to answer one of the following questions: How do physical therapists decrease injurious falls within the community? What are some patient education techniques that you have used in the clinic to prevent falls? What are some novel treatment techniques that you have utilized in the clinic to prevent falls?
UNMC Wins 2018 Balance & Falls Video Challenge
The University of Nebraska Medical Center won the 2018 Balance & Falls SIG video challenge with their submission of Rolling Up Fears of Falls. The students discussed the aspects of falling in older adults and selected the fear of falling as the focus for their video. The students were inspired by their professors Dr. Katherine Jones who has dedicated her career to fall prevention in rural Nebraska hospitals, along with Dr. Dawn Venema who has also played a key roll in our learning about all aspects of falls and how to prevent them.
UNMC has been awarded $500 to put toward students attending conferences to advance their learning. The students who participated in the project are: Alex Eilers, Jonathan Freeman, Halle Hart, Emilie Hicks, Dana McKenzie, Margaret Morehouse, Morgan Olson Newman and Nicole Potthoff.
Other BFSIG Leadership Actions for your Review:
- A 2017 member survey was completed. Here is what you told us:
- You provide evidence based information to patients, clients, and family caregivers on a daily basis
- You are interested in EBP falls patient information that can be printed and explained easily in the clinic
- You want updated EBP that is quickly accessible (the next sections has these links!)
- You are very interested in EBP to identify fall risk and to prevent falls
- Congratulations to the winners of the $50 survey participation drawing! Nancy Davis , PT, MS, DPT of New Hampshire, Lori Thompson, PT, DPT of Arizona, Alison Brophy-Cummings, PT of New Hampshire, and Kathleen Mahoney, PT, DPT of Massachusetts.
- In 2017, your BFSIG leaders worked to establish the Interprofessional Fall Prevention Coalition to best steward resources and effort in shared aims of falls prevention. The interprofessional fall prevention coalition was founded with colleagues from the Geriatric BFSIG, AOTA, ACRM, and NCOA.
- We supported a social media Facebook live broadcast using Twitter and Facebook in late July that featured a review of NCOA evidence-based resources for fall prevention and intervention.
- We established the CSM 2018 Poster Award for falls content. We are reviewing submissions and evaluating the posters prior to CSM in order to award 3 winners based upon scientific merit and relevance to practice during the Myelin Melter Business Meeting.
- We communicate monthly updates to our Neuro SIG liaison, Aimee Perron, She has done an excellent job of promoting our initiatives to a larger segment of the membership on a monthly basis.
- We promoted ANPT BFSIG aims with the APTA NEXT Conference and the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM). A cross-cutting symposium on balance and falls screening that discusses stroke and cancer population considerations of the guideline is in development
A selection of recent Guidelines and Evidence on Falls Prevention
Tang, A., Tao, A., Soh, M., Tam, C., Tan, H., Thompson, J., et al. (2015). The effect of interventions on balance self-efficacy in the stroke population: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Rehabilitation, 29(12), 1168-1177 10p. doi:10.1177/0269215515570380
Sibley, K. M., Howe, T., Lamb, S. E., Lord, S. R., Maki, B. E., Rose, D. J., et al. (2015). Recommendations for a core outcome set for measuring standing balance in adult populations: A consensus-based approach. Plos One, 10(3), 1-20. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0120568
Verma, S. K., Willetts, J. L., Corns, H. L., Marucci-Wellman, H., Lombardi, D. A., & Courtney, T. K. (2016). Falls and fall-related injuries among community-dwelling adults in the united states. Plos One, 11(3), 1-14. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0150939 Rimland JM, Abraha I, Dell’Aquila G, Cruz-Jentoft A, Soiza R, et al.
Policy Driving APTA, NIH and CDC Fall Resources:
– BFSIG leadership and our Balance and Falls Coalition collaborators sent feedback during the response window. The draft recommendations: 1) reinforced the level B evidence recommendation that at risk, community dwelling adults receive exercise to prevent falls; 2) Gave level C recommendations for screening of falls selectively based upon “the balance of benefits and harms based on the circumstances of prior falls, presence of comorbid medical conditions, and the patient’s values and preferences.”; and 3) gave level D recommendations –recommending against Vitamin D supplement for fall prevention in this population.
- Don’t see something new that you use for in your fall prevention practice? Send a note and link to add to the conversation! We are especially interested in neurologic population evidence for falls prevention. Julie.Schwertfeger@rosalindfranklin.edu. Links above were accessed and are verified as of 3/20/19.