Stay upright
NSW is seeing increasing rates of older people admitted to hospital for treatment following a fall, says Lorraine Lovett, NSW Leader Falls Program, Clinical Excellence Commission – and this is replicated nationwide, and the reason behind the "April Falls Day" promotion (1 Apr) to raise awareness of the risk of falls and their complications.
"This year's theme is particularly related to pharmacy: it's medication and falls," she told the AJP. "Our slogan is, 'Medicate right to stay upright'.
"The idea is that we will support health staff, and we've done some simple presentations around falls and medicine; we've done one for the general population as well.
"There are certain medicines that are a risk factor for falls: the central nervous system-acting medicines, so that's benzodiazepines, sedatives, that sort of thing. We're saying to the community that they can be at an increased risk of falls if they're on these medicines, and we urge them to talk to their GP; when was their last medication review? We're asking them if they have a current list of medicines and to talk to their pharmacist if they're unsure about their medicines.
"We've got no direct control over what GPs put people on, but we want people to know that they can have adverse events as a result of some medicines, so they should talk to their pharmacist. And if they're in our care, we can look at options to reduce, where appropriate, some of those medicines."
Ms Lovett says that as well as being prepared to talk to older patients, or those on medicines that may increase the possibility of falls, use April Falls Day as an opportunity to speak with other patients who may be at greater risk: this includes people who have vision loss.
"If you have a client who comes in for medicine for glaucoma, for example, they can talk to them about the fact that if your vision's not good, you can be at risk of serious injury if you fall."
She says that April Falls Day will see a range of events and educational sessions in hospitals, as well as information distribution at shopping centres. Customers can also be directed to the NSW Government's Active and Healthy website, which includes a lot of information about balance and gentle exercise.
More information: fallsnetwork.neura.edu.au,www.activeandhealthy.nsw.gov.au
Reproduced from AJP on Friday 21/3/14
