Falls Prevention Awareness Week (NFPAW) is a national health campaign observed on the first day of fall to increase awareness around falls health and injury prevention. NFPAW is an interdisciplinary effort led by the National Council on Aging (NCOA) that runs from September 18-22, 2023.

NCOA and APTA Geriatrics have both developed tools to encourage participation in the campaign, build awareness in your community, and make it easier to talk to older adults about preventing falls. Here’s how you can get ready:

1) Visit the APTA Geriatrics National Falls and Prevention Week Toolkit. Included are social media images, content text, and links to NCOA and APTA Geriatrics documents and tools.

2) Visit the NCOE National Falls Prevention Awareness Week website

3) Download the APTA Geriatrics Falls Prevention Awareness Toolkit

4) Download the APTA Geriatrics Outcome Measures Toolkit

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.