Spectrum Health, Ireland’s largest allied health services provider, and Kinesis Health Technologies, a University College Dublin (UCD) medical campus company, have announced a new partnership to deliver Falls Action, a comprehensive falls prevention service in Ireland.
Falls Action (www.falls.ie) will take a step-by-step proactive approach to identify individuals at risk of falling and facilitate early and targeted intervention though exercise and chartered physiotherapy which have been shown to reduce falls in older people by up to 40%.
Falls in older adults are a major problem in Ireland, with an estimated 30% of adults over 65 falling each year. Incidence rates in hospitals are higher, and in long-term care settings approximately 30–50% of residents fall each year. In Ireland alone it is estimated that the annual healthcare costs associated with falls is €500 million.
Using Kinesis’ breakthrough technology Kinesis, which has been shown to be more accurate than traditional methods in assessing risk of falls, Falls Action will offer a falls screening service. Falls Screen will provide an exact and quantitative evaluation of the many dimensions that make up a person’s propensity to trip and fall and will identify those at risk of falling.
These results will provide Falls Action’s specialised chartered physiotherapists with a detailed assessment of what elements should be addressed for individuals through physiotherapy and exercise.
For those individuals classified in a risk category, Falls Action’s next step will be to provide a series of interventions, which may include exercise and physiotherapy, to reduce the individual’s risk and minimise falls.
For further information contact Micéal Whelan, Communications Manager (Innovation), University College Dublin. Email: miceal.whelan@ucd.ie Tel: (01) 716 3712. Or Falls Action general enquiries. Email: hello@falls.ie
