Abstract
This poster emphasizes the important role OT plays in developing and implementing a fall prevention program in an assisted living facility. This holistic program positively affected the roles, routines, and habits of the residents.
Primary Author and Speaker: Katherine Grace Marszalek
Contributing Authors: Laura Huth, Christine Daeschner
This evidence-based project assesses the impact of a fall prevention program on assisted living residents. As people age, there is an increase in fear of falling, which is influenced by extrinsic, intrinsic, and situational factors (Vaishya & Vaish, 2020). Consequentially, their independence is often lost, they become deconditioned, avoid daily activities, have a greater risk of subsequent falls, reduced social activity, and a loss of balance confidence, and it can result in death (MacKay et al., 2021). The use of Lifestyle Redesign concepts in occupational therapy fall prevention programs can influence health, social participation, leisure, and mobility (Levasseur et al., 2019). This quantitative project was implemented with assisted living residents in a senior living facility who spoke English. The in-person, five-week program used Lifestyle Redesign concepts and consisted of weekly sessions. Participants completed the Falls Efficacy Scale-International and self-created pre-post surveys to assess fear of falling, confidence to participate in daily activities, and knowledge of fall prevention strategies, impacting their likelihood of participating in daily activities. Descriptive statistics analysis was utilized to determine the data outcomes. The projected outcomes include an increase in confidence, knowledge, and likelihood of daily activity participation and a decrease in fear of falling. Occupational therapy can uniquely contribute an important role in fall prevention programs to potentially increase daily activity participation. Working directly with residents is imperative for increasing the likelihood of participating in daily activities by decreasing fear of falling. Future studies can evaluate how the projected outcomes impact falls and independence among assisted living residents.
Levasseur, M., Filiatrault, J., Larivière, N., Trépanier, J., Lévesque, M.-H., Beaudry, M., Parisien, M., Provencher, V., Couturier, Y., Champoux, N., Corriveau, H., Carbonneau, H., & Sirois, F. (2019). Influence of Lifestyle Redesign® on health, social participation, leisure, and mobility of older French-Canadians. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 73(5), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2019.031732
MacKay, S., Ebert, P., Harbidge, C., & Hogan, D. B. (2021). Fear of falling in older adults: A scoping review of recent literature. Canadian Geriatrics Journal, 24(4), 379–394. https://doi.org/10.5770/cgj.24.521
Vaishya, R., & Vaish, A. (2020). Falls in older adults are serious. Indian Journal of Orthopaedics, 54(1), 69–74. https://doi.org/10.10072Fs43465-019-00037-x