Falls Prevention Week
To mark Falls Prevention Awareness Week this past September, second-year Doctor of Physical Therapy students from Georgia Southern University Armstrong Campus volunteered their time to perform falls risk screenings at Harmony at Savannah, a senior living community in Savannah, Georgia. Falls Prevention Week is a nationwide effort to raise awareness on preventing falls and reducing falls risk. Using the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Stopping Elderly Accidents, Deaths & Injuries (STEADI) assessments, a tool to help reduce fall risk among older patients, student volunteers spent their afternoon assessing over 30 adults. Each participant was screened and notified as to whether there was a need for further assessment and whether physical therapy services could be used to address their risks for falls.
“I am very proud of all of our students on how well they represented Georgia Southern University,” stated James Karnes, Ph.D., PT, associate professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences. “Student volunteers provided a very valuable service to these older adults, many of whom were found to be at risk for falls.”
Posted in Community Outreach, Events, Student Highlights