Virtual 2022 Kentucky Falls and Osteoporosis Summit to be held Aug. 23
Falls are the leading cause of injury-related deaths, emergency department visits, and inpatient hospitalizations among Kentuckians aged 65 and older. Older adult falls are a serious public health concern, but many are preventable.
“Falls threaten the safety, health, and independence of older adults, and the risk for a fall increases as people age,” said Ashley Bush, DrPH, principal investigator of the Kentucky Violence and Injury Prevention Program. “Preventing falls can help us improve quality of life and decrease the financial, emotional, and physical costs to the individuals, their families, and society. Fall prevention is extremely important as we are seeing our baby boomer generation age.”
On Aug. 23, the virtual 2022 Kentucky Falls and Osteoporosis Summit will feature talks on a variety of topics meant to enhance the understanding of ways to support older adults in aging gracefully. The Summit will be held online from 10 a.m. till 3:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time and is free to join.
Bush said the summit is aimed specifically at those working in the field of fall prevention and intervention, including staff at physical therapy practices, Safe Communities, local health-related coalitions, health departments, nursing homes and senior centers, and other health care organizations.
The Summit is virtual again this year and will provide continuing education credits for nursing, physical therapy, social work, and community health workers.
“This Summit will provide education on factors that can impact fall risk,” said Lorna Mangus, MPH, Kentucky Safe Aging Coalition coordinator at KIPRC. “It will offer approaches to fall risk assessment and intervention and will demonstrate measures organizations can take to assist older adults to mitigate fall risk and age in place.”
Presentations will include “Is there such a thing as a mechanical fall?,” “Secondary fracture prevention…miles to go,” “Dementia: Introduction, common behaviors, care plans,” “Impact of oral health on fall prevention, “Polypharmacy, deprescribing, and falls prevention in the aging population,” “Implementation of CDC’s STEADI initiative,” and “Older adult homes modification project—Mitigating fall risks through grant-funded home modification in rural Kentucky.”
RSVP for the 2022 Kentucky Falls and Osteoporosis Summit at https://tinyurl.com/yrbaxcpk. The program agenda is available at https://kspan.egnyte.com/dl/vzZsYBITob.
Since 2010, the Kentucky Safe Aging Coalition (KSAC), Kentucky Department for Public Health (KDPH), Kentucky Department for Aging and Independent Living, Kentucky Safety and Prevention Alignment Network (KSPAN), and Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center (KIPRC) have hosted the annual Falls and Osteoporosis Summit, to provide education and networking opportunities to participants.
KSAC is KSPAN’s Falls Prevention Committee. KSPAN is an injury prevention community implementation group that is supported by the CDC-funded Kentucky Violence and Injury Prevention Program at KIPRC.
KIPRC is a unique partnership between KDPH and the University of Kentucky’s College of Public Health. KIPRC serves both as an academic injury prevention research center and as a bona fide agent of KDPH for statewide injury prevention.