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Marinela and Wim van den Heuvel

FALL PREVENTION IN NURSING HOMES   Back to project page

The project ‘Fall prevention in psycho-geriatric nursing homes’ was a project, funded by ZonMw and executed by the Institute of Rehabilitation Research in the period 2001-2006. Wim was involved as promoter and continued to do so after her resigned as director.

One-third of people aged 65 and over, living independently, have at least one fall a year. About 10% of these falls cause serious injury. The incidence of falls is 2 falls per bed in nursing homes; the highest incidence in psych-geriatric nursing homes. An intervention was developed to reduce the incidence of falls in psycho-geriatric nursing homes. The intervention directed at a multifactorial fall prevention, including the components: fall history, medication use, locomotor functioning, use of airs and protective devices. The incidence of falls dropped significantly in the psycho-geriatric ward of six intervention nursing homes as compared to the ones in six control homes. The process to execute the intervention might be improved, suggesting a higher effect. The results of the study are published in the dissertation of J. Neyens 'Fall prevention in psychogeriatric nursing homes residents' Maastricht University, 2007.