How care homes can benefit from using a falls monitoring system
Reducing and managing falls - including ensuring a quick response - is vital for maintaining the health, wellbeing and independence of care home residents.
Falls in care home residents
Falls are one of the leading causes of death and injury in people over the age of 65 - and studies have shown that care home residents fall five times more often than elderly people living in their own homes.
One in ten of these falls results in a broken bone, such as a hip fracture, often as a result of lower bone density due to conditions such as osteoporosis. And one in five people affected will die within a year as a result of these injuries, with an increased one-year mortality rate of between 18% and 33%.
Falls can also adversely affect quality of life in older people, not just as a result of physical injury, but also because they can lead to an ongoing fear of falling, which can and have a negative effect on daily living activities such as shopping and walking.
So how can falls best be managed in a residential care setting?
The benefits of using a falls monitoring system
Rapid response. Falls monitoring systems enable rapid response to events. They enable care home staff to be alerted quickly if a resident falls.
More efficient care delivery. Staff can see immediately exactly where the fall alert has originated from, and can go straight to the resident’s location, so that care and reassurance can be delivered immediately.
Privacy, security and independence. These systems provide added security for those at risk of falling, and mean that residents can have a good night's sleep without being unnecessarily disturbed by staff checking on them through the night.
Our Touch Screen Nursecall unit, Aurum™, incorporates Lumi, a revolutionary fall management and light guidance system that’s designed to uphold residents’ privacy, dignity and independence, whist giving them unparalleled safety at night.
Find out more here.
Sources
