National Fall Prevention Day is held every year to raise awareness to prevent fall-related injuries among older adults. This year, National Fall Prevention Day was September 23, 2015.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention one out of five falls results in a serious injury such as broken bones or a head injury. Furthermore, over 700,000 patients a year are hospitalized because of a fall injury. Falls are also the most common cause of traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Our Injury Prevention Coordinator, Sheila Antwi, attended Jamaica Service Program for Older Adults (JSPOA) to educate individuals on Fall Prevention where she highlighted the risk factors associated with falls, and identified strategies and resources to reduce the risk of these falls. A video presentation was also shown to individuals to get a better understanding on how common falls are and why falls happen in older adults

Since January 1st, 2015 – August 31st 2015 there have been a total of 1,489 patients including (ED discharges). Of those, 717 were falls. That is 48% of the total population of all traumas. Of the 1,489 patients, 1,147 were actually admitted to in-patient. Of those, 615 were falls. That is 54% of the total population of trauma admissions.

The purpose of this event was to educate older adults in the community on injury prevention and to raise awareness about elderly falls in an effort to decrease the number of preventable traumas and other injuries.