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Training, Technology and Supervision: How Home Care Providers Can Eliminate Fall Risks
McKnight’s Home Care | By Adam Healy
Fall prevention is one of the best ways that home care providers can keep senior clients out of the hospital, but it takes a multifaceted approach.
For Carrie Bianco, the owner and executive director of Always Best Care Senior Services in Torrance, CA, effective fall prevention comes down to training, technology and supervision. Bianco’s agency serves roughly 150 clients with a team of about 300 caregivers. Bianco said that every one of her clients is at risk of experiencing a fall.
“It used to be that the clients we served were between 70 and 85,” she told McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse Monday in an interview. “Now they’re 85 to 100, so they’re a lot older. They are living longer and have less health challenges until they hit that 85 to 95 mark. So all of those folks are definitely at fall risk.”
Educating clients and caregivers is the first step to preventing falls. Bianco said that her agency organizes educational events to ensure both staff and community members are up-to-date on fall prevention best practices. The firm also uses a “balance tracker” tool to analyze seniors’ postural sway, which can impact balance.
Always Best Care recently published a list of nine commonly overlooked fall risks present in many home care clients’ homes. Among these were poor lighting, pets and loose rugs. Health issues like medication side effects or dehydration can also heighten seniors’ risk of falling, according to the list. However, Bianco said that most falls are simply caused by a lack of awareness.
“Most of the time [the clients] are just distracted,” Bianco explained. “It’s all the little things. When the caregivers and care managers go out, they do a safety assessment to make sure that we can educate the client,” — or an [adult] child who may be the point of contact — “on what they need to do to make that house safe for that older adult.”
This education is crucial since fall-related injuries tend to have long-lasting health effects, Bianco said. Recuperation and rehabilitation after a fall can be especially challenging for seniors, she noted.
“With a fall, you’re probably going to be in the hospital with something that’s broken or fractured, and when they’re in the hospital, they’re not going to rehab as well as they would if they were at home,” Bianco said. “So the falls, to me, are the most important [thing to prevent] to try to keep the client out of the hospital.”
Fall prevention is garnering attention across the healthcare-at-home continuum. InnovAge, a Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly organization, recently disclosed its participation in a study focused on preventing falls by seniors. And the National Council on Aging last week promoted home safety practices to follow during Falls Prevention Awareness Week, Sept. 23 through Sept. 27. |
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Brain Scans Reveal That Mindfulness Meditation for Pain is Not a Placebo
MedicalXpress | By University of California – San Diego
Pain is a complex, multifaceted experience shaped by various factors beyond physical sensation, such as a person's mindset and their expectations of pain. The placebo effect, the tendency for a person's symptoms to improve in response to inactive treatment, is a well-known example of how expectations can significantly alter a person's experience. Mindfulness meditation, which has been used for pain management in various cultures for centuries, has long been thought to work by activating the placebo response. However, scientists have now shown that this is not the case.
A new study, published in Biological Psychiatry, has revealed that mindfulness meditation engages distinct brain mechanisms to reduce pain compared to those of the placebo response. The study, conducted by researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, used advanced brain imaging techniques to compare the pain-reducing effects of mindfulness meditation, a placebo cream and a "sham" mindfulness meditation in healthy participants.
The study found that mindfulness meditation produced significant reductions in pain intensity and pain unpleasantness ratings, and also reduced brain activity patterns associated with pain and negative emotions. In contrast, the placebo cream only reduced the brain activity pattern associated with the placebo effect, without affecting the person's underlying experience of pain.
"The mind is extremely powerful, and we're still working to understand how it can be harnessed for pain management," said Fadel Zeidan, Ph.D., professor of anesthesiology and Endowed Professor in Empathy and Compassion Research at UC San Diego Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion. "By separating pain from the self and relinquishing evaluative judgment, mindfulness meditation is able to directly modify how we experience pain in a way that uses no drugs, costs nothing and can be practiced anywhere."…
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Historic Numbers of Americans Live by Themselves as They Age
By Judith Graham | KFF Health News
Gerri Norington, 78, never wanted to be on her own as she grew old.
But her first marriage ended in divorce, and her second husband died more than 30 years ago. When a five-year relationship came to a close in 2006, she found herself alone — a situation that has lasted since.
“I miss having a companion who I can talk to and ask ‘How was your day?’ or ‘What do you think of what’s going on in the world?’” said Norington, who lives in an apartment building for seniors on the South Side of Chicago. Although she has a loving daughter in the city, “I don’t want to be a burden to her,” she said.
Norington is part of a large but often overlooked group: the more than 16 million Americans living alone while growing old. Surprisingly little is known about their experiences.
This slice of the older population has significant health issues: Nearly 4 in 10 seniors living alone have vision or hearing loss, difficulty caring for themselves and living independently, problems with cognition, or other disabilities, according to a KFF analysis of 2022 census data.
If help at home isn’t available when needed — an altogether too common problem — being alone can magnify these difficulties and contribute to worsening health.
Multiple studies find that seniors on their own are at higher risk of becoming isolated, depressed, and inactive, having accidents, and neglecting to care for themselves. As a result, they tend to be hospitalized more often and suffer earlier-than-expected deaths.
Getting medical services can be a problem, especially if older adults living alone don’t drive or live in rural areas. Too often, experts observe, health care providers don’t ask about older adults’ living situations and are unaware of the challenges they face…
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Half of Home Care Workers Have Seen, Experienced Workplace Violence, Report Finds
McKnight’s Home Care | By Adam Healy
The majority of home care workers have had a brush with workplace violence or harassment, so addressing these dangers can yield significant positive impacts for providers and their staff. That’s according to a new report on home care workplace safety by Transcend Strategy Group.
More than 50% of home-based care workers have witnessed or experienced at least one incident of workplace violence or harassment, the report found. About 1 in 5 reported having seen at least seven instances of violence or harassment while on the job. Certified nursing assistants, registered nurses and physician assistants were the most likely groups to be subject to workplace dangers.
Home care providers are tackling these issues by leveraging new technologies and safety protocols to protect their workers. The report noted that tools like wearable safety devices or mobile phone applications can help boost on-the-job safety, while de-escalation training and other organizational protocols can also enhance employees’ well-being at work. In a webinar last year, experts from the National Association for Home Care & Hospice recommended that providers use in-home assessments to identify potential safety concerns before initiating care.
Still, about one-third of the surveyed workers said that they do not feel as if their employer prioritizes their safety. However, 48% indicated that they could leave an unsafe work environment without fear of retaliation from their employer.
Transcend solicited feedback from 400 individuals who worked in home-based care. The largest share were home care aides, followed by registered nurses and certified nursing assistants. Most had between one and 10 years of experience.
Some states have addressed home care safety in recent months. Notably, Connecticut passed a law in May that required home care agencies to run background checks on all clients and any other individuals living in clients’ homes. The bill was proposed in reaction to the death of Joyce Grayson, a visiting nurse who was allegedly killed by one of her clients. |
Introducing the National Alliance for Care at Home!
The National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) have reached important milestones in the process of integrating into one organization. As members, you are the first to learn about the name, logo, and initial website for our new, combined organization: National Alliance for Care at Home.
New Name and Logo
The Alliance logo is an homage to the past and a symbol of the future, weaving together visual representations symbolizing both NAHC and NHPCO. The sections of the Alliance logo are stylized people, standing together in a circle, and holding hands. The negative space between them can be seen as an icon for house or home. Altogether, the logo represents providers across the continuum coming together to support a better future for care in the home.
New Website and Communities
The interim website for the Alliance is available now: AllianceForCareAtHome.org.
This new website serves as a single sign-on hub for members, enabling you to access the resources of both legacy organizations with one unified log-in. If you have any questions or need assistance with this process, contact [email protected].
The Alliance is working on a new website to launch in 2025, which will be housed at the same URL.
The NAHC Communities will have a new look, but as a legacy NAHC member, your experience should not change. You will notice legacy NHPCO members will share the same communities section as you do, which should increase your access to informed discussion from other industry professionals, with a combined set of 29 online communities to enable the exchange of professional ideas and best practices.
We are stronger, together.
Today’s announcements come on the heels of the announcement that Steve Landers, MD, MPH, will be the first CEO of the Alliance.
See https://allianceforcareathome.org/ |
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