Tell all: Bring falls program to community
Tell all: Bring falls program to community
Melrose-Wakefield Hospital Home Health Care, Melrose, MA, is ready to continue its trend of marketing its services to the community. Knowing it's no longer enough to wait for physician or hospital referrals to attract patients to your agency, its new Falls Prevention program is being offered to senior citizens in the community this month.
"We're in the process of setting up our first community screening," says Patricia Finocchiaro. "We re going to talk to families in a local town at a senior center about the Falls Prevention program and address the community people about risk factors and prevention."
Since the hospital is based in Melrose, the agency first looked to the community it served as the best place to market the program; however, it didn't make cold calls to the local senior center.
"We have presented other educational programs and health promotion clinics at the center," notes Finocchiaro. "We have provided safety awareness and education programs to other senior community centers, as well."
Presentations have included panel discussions on home safety issues such as physical therapy and occupational therapy. For occupational therapy, nurses bring in adaptive equipment such as reachers, raised toilet seats, and long-handled sponges and show people how to use these items. "The audience usually enjoys this interactive participation," says Finocchiaro.
For the Falls Prevention Program, screening will be done by home care staff nurses, physical therapists, and pharmacists. Clients will be preregistered and travel from one station to the next for screening purposes. Nurses will assess the home environment separately.
In addition to providing greater awareness of the hospital's home care agency and Falls Prevention Program, the screening will also provide education to the clients. *
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