Greetings APTA Geriatrics BF SIG Members and Happy New Year! 

It’s been a whirlwind of a year for us in the BF SIG and we wanted to provide an update as to what 2023 has in store for the BF SIG as a whole! Check out the links to our annual call meeting minutes and recordings. 

• CSM ANNOUNCEMENTS: The BF SIG is co-sponsoring two sessions at CSM. 
  • Friday, February 24, 8-10 am: Solving the Balance Problem in Medically Complex Patients Across the Life Span
    • Heidi Moyer, PT, DPT (APTA Geriatrics BF SIG Chair)
    • Rachel Hac, PT, DPT (APTA Oncology BF SIG Chair)
    • Debbie Espy, PT, PhD (ANPT BF SIG Chair)
  • Saturday, February 25, 11 am-1 pm: Joining the Fight for Parkinson’s 
    • Haim Nesser, PT, DPT (Vice-Chair)
    • Heather Timothy, PT, MSPT (Clinical Liaison)
    • Heidi Moyer, PT, DPT (Chair) 
  • We will not be hosting an in person meeting at CSM, but we have been invited to attend the APTA Oncology BF SIG meeting at CSM on Friday from 1-2pm in the Hilton Bayfront Indigo DH (Level 2) room. Our GeriSIG leaders will be present, so feel free to come and mingle with us at this meeting! Thank you to Rachel for opening this opportunity up for our members! 
  • STUDENT OPPORTUNITY ALERT: Our Student Liaison, Sarah Roberts, along with the APTA Geriatrics Student taskforce, will be hosting an informal student meet-up on Thursday, February 23rd at 6pm outside of the Sapphire Ballroom AB just prior to the APTA Geriatrics Business Meeting! 
• National Falls Prevention Awareness Week (September 18-22) 2023 planning is in full swing! 
  • We are in the process of creating a new multi-specialty toolkit to promote balance and falls screening in ALL settings, which will be launched in June. Thanks to Tammy (Community Outreach Liaison) for chairing this effort! 
  • The Kick-Off call for this will occur in June, date TBA later! 
  • The BF SIG hosted journal club will be Tuesday, September 19th! 
• Our Knowledge Translation Liaison Deborah Constantine will be working with the KT Taskforce this year to bring tangible resources from the Falls CPG being published this year! 
• Neuro Toolkit Update: Our Early-Career Professional Liaisons, Holly and Kimma, and hard at work in the next phase of the Balance and Falls Toolkit for Older Adults with Neurologic Diagnoses. We will be moving into expert reviewer stages in March April with a hopeful delivery date of the product by July 2023. 
• Monthly Challenge: Our amazing Clinical Liaison Team (Stef, Heather, and Anne) have a fabulous line-up of content for the new year including two guest writer slots from the Cognitive and Mental Health SIG as well as the Bone Health SIG! 
• Ask the Research Liaison is live and active! Do you have a question about Balance and Falls, but no time to do the research? Ask our Research Liaison Jen Gindoff by emailing us at agptbalanceandfallssig@gmail.com. 
• GeriNotes: The BF SIG continues to provide a consistent presence in GeriNotes thanks to collaboration with editor Michele Stanley. 
• Volunteer Opportunities: 
  • PTA Liaison position is currently open! Please reach out to us to learn more about joining our team. 
  • As we draw two of our major projects to a close in June of this year, we are open to new idea and opportunities! Let us know what you want to see next! 

Thanks again for another exciting year of providing you with the content that you need to provide the utmost service to your patients! Reach out to us at agptbalanceandfallssig@gmail.com! 

The Balance and Falls SIG Team 

The APTA Geriatrics BF SIG is proud to announce that we have created a collaborative document sharing all our open access resources to help you better provide balance and falls prevention services in the community, clinic, and beyond. Please feel free to share this with anyone who might be interested.

Access the Tri-alliance Campaign

On June 29, 2022, the APTA Geriatrics BF SIG had their Annual National Falls Prevention Awareness Day Kick Off Call to assist members in beginning to brainstorm and plan their events and efforts for the week of September 18-24. Our Clinical Liaison, Tammy McHugh, served as the creator and master of ceremonies for the event. We were honored to host the following guest speakers for the evening:

• Cathy Ciolek, APTA Geriatrics President
• Governors State University DPT Student Speaker Miguel Musngi with Student Panel Members TaShea’ Moore, Daniel Kusper, and Andres Garcia
• Deb Espy, Academy of Neurologic Physical Therapy BF SIG Chair
• Eric Galvez, APTA Oncology BF SIG Membership Chair
• David Taylor, APTA Geriatrics House of Delegates Representative
• Tammy McHugh, APTA Geriatrics BF SIG Community Outreach Liaison

Top resources that were shared during the call included:

• CDC STEADI Toolkit
• APTA Geriatrics BF SIG NFPAW Toolkit
• APTA Geriatrics BF SIG Outcome Measures Toolkit
• ANPT Clinical Practice Guidelines
• ANPT Outcome Measure Recommendations
• APTA Oncology Balance and Falls Fact Sheet
• APTA Geriatrics State Advocate Website

A big thank you to all our speakers and to all those who attended! Did you miss the call? Listen to the call recording here or peruse through the call powerpoint.