Since january 1st of this year, people over 65 years old had a fall in Europe, sometimes with serious consequences.
Since january 1st of this year, people over 65 years old had a fall in Europe, sometimes with serious consequences.
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The Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation unit at the hospital in Poitiers has created a mobile unit for the prevention of falls among seniors. It includes physicians (re-educators and geriatricians) and physiotherapists. Its purpose is to improve knowledge in the specific field of falls among the elderly, and to make it possible for people with a disability to live better with their condition (prevention, re-education, rehabilitation) and continue living as autonomously as possible in their usual environment.
At first, the unit will intervene in nursing homes.
Duty shifts will then be gradually established, followed by in-home interventions. A network will be formed between city physicians, physiotherapists, nurses and social workers from the region working with the mobile unit.
Screening for postural and balance impairments among seniors constitutes a major issue in terms of public health. A simple therapeutic strategy could be organised to remedy static and dynamic impairments.
The consequences of a fall can lead to a risk of death for senior patients; the action of this body will aim directly at reducing this major risk they are running.
The objective is to analyse senior's posture and gait initiation in a situation that is as similar as possible to their usual living environment, and thereby be able to determine the predictive parameters for falls among elderly persons.
This assessment will be performed at home and include taking the patient's medical history and a complete medical check-up. The team will be using a mobile posturometer that can be used in patients' homes in order to assess their posture in their usual living environment. This device makes it possible to quickly analyse balance and posture with eyes open, then closed.This assessment performed in the person's living environment constitutes an original and pragmatic tool. This evaluation strategy appears to be able to provide significant information for the assessment of seniors' fall risk. In particular, it makes it possible to revise the rehabilitation or compensatory strategies.
