b"FOCUS ON FALLSIn 2016, Perley began a comprehensive initiative to minimize resident falls including simulating a resident fall and staff training on response and procedures. Training includes a simulated fall, a debriefing and a survey of participants. Photo Credit: Perley HealthFalls preventionPerley Health shares lessons learnedN umerous studies demonstrate that falls are a leadingIn the units where CCR was piloted, the rates of falls initially cause of injury-related hospitalizations amongdeclined by as much as 50%. The rates subsequently long-term care residents. Half of all long-term careincreased, although they remain relatively low. In response, residents experience at least one fall each year, for Perley launched another initiative designed to remind instancenearly the double the rate for older adults who frontline staff of how best to respond when a resident falls. live independently. A long list of factors can contribute to fallseverything from environmental hazards to declines in physical and cognitive status. Further complicating efforts to prevent falls inlong-term care homes are high rates of turnover among residents and staff, and the need to respect the autonomyof residents. In 2016, Ottawas Perley Health long-term care home qualified as a Best Practices Spotlight Organization (BPSO), a collaborative program led by the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario. Implementing RNAOs bestpractices in falls prevention was among the homes firstBPSO projects. Perley Health began a comprehensive initiative to minimize resident falls, engaging everyone from nurses and personal support workers to occupational therapists, physiotherapists, housekeepers, and more. Many actions were proposed and analyzed, and the most promising onessuch as risk assessments and post-fall staff huddleshave been standardized and implemented. A personal support worker records information in a Perley Health Among the most successful has been comfort careresident's Comfort Care Rounding form. Co-created by Perley rounding (CCR), a multi-step process that has staff checkHealth, Comfort Care Rounding is a multi-step process that has regularly on each resident, scan for potential risks and logstaff check regularly on each resident, scan for potential risks and the results.log the results. Photo Credit: Tom Lilly50 LONG TERM CARE TODAY Fall/Winter 2024"