Falls: Psychosocial Care

Course Overview

This Course will look at the psychosocial health of people who are at risk of falls, and discuss ways to provide the care that will meet their needs.

Topics

• What is psychosocial health and how does it relate to falls?
• How is a p[erson's social and spiritual health affected by a fall?
• Practical considerations to support a person's psychological and emotional health following a fall

Need

There is limited literature on the contribution and influence a patient’s psychosocial health has on their fall risk, with literature tending to focus on physical and health risk factors only. Additionally, there is little—no literature on the positive aspects of wellbeing and its relation to fall risk.

Nurses and other health professionals are in a unique position to frequently monitor patients and their psychosocial care in relation to falls. Nurses need to be more inclusive of the patient’s sexuality, spirituality, optimism and hope when assessing psychosocial care and quality of life as these subjects can be the least explored by staff with their patients. This barrier can adversely affect falls prevention.

Purpose

The purpose of this Course is to prepare you to feel adequately informed and skilled at providing psychosocial care to the person who has experienced or is at risk of, falling.

Learning Outcomes

• Use your knowledge of psychosocial factors that impact on falls risk in order to better prevent falls in high risk patients and consequent negative health outcomes
• Undertake a recommended comprehensive psychosocial assessment on patients to ascertain risk of falling and plan required prevention interventions

Target Audience

This Course is most relevant to registered nurses and other health professionals working in inpatient wards of hospitals and residential aged care facilities.

Disclosure

No conflict of interest exists for anyone in the position to control content for this activity. Wherever possible, generic or non-proprietary names of medications or products have been used.

    Educator

Diana Clayton

Diana Clayton is a clinical nurse consultant who works for Peninsula Health in the falls prevention service. She initially set up the inpatient falls prevention program and currently oversees the program in the subacute and residential care settings. She has been in her current role for 13 years and has presented at a number of conferences over that time. She is a passionate advocate for falls prevention across the whole health spectrum. See Educator Profile