Introduction
By incorporating the resources linked to patients and their family’s education regarding issues such as de-cluttering, as well as physical activities involving coordination improvement (I), compared to the current absence of a specific framework (C), a drop in 40% of falls (O) in the elderly (P) within the next three (3) months (T) is expected to be observed.
Rationale
Problem
The issue of falls among elderly residents of the target community has been posing an obvious health concern. Moreover, the available resources on the issue at hand specify that the phenomenon of falls, apart from being dramatically common in the target population, is also highly dangerous (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2019). Apart from obvious concerns such as bruises and fractures, falls may cause mental health complications due to probable concussions (Gao et al., 2020). In the elderly, who are highly susceptible to cognitive health concerns, including Alzheimer’s disease, the specified threat must be removed (Ye et al., 2020). In turn, the proposed solution offers greater opportunities compared to the current approach.
Intervention
The proposed intervention is expected to help remove the outlined problem from the target community context. Specifically, the inclusion of innovative programs allowing the aging population to exercise physically and mentally to retain their crucial motor and mental functions coupled with spatial reorganization and decluttering is expected to produce positive results (Phirom et al., 2020; ). Thus, an improved framework for meeting the needs of patients that are prone to falls can be introduced into the target community.
Comparison
As a rule, the problems of falls in aging adults have been addressed with strategies allowing for an improved spatial orientation, which involved primarily decluttering and movement support tools (Li et al., 2021). While the described devices are also integral to the successful prevention of falls, a combined framework involving the use of spatial approaches along with the techniques that can assist aging people in training their motor and spatial orientation skills is believed to be significantly more useful. Namely, the existing approach is steered primarily toward exerting control over the external factors that induce falls in the elderly, while largely ignoring the internal ones. Consequently, the outlined treatment strategy needs to be replaced with a more effective one aimed at building patient awareness and preparedness.
Outcome
The proposed solutions will encourage patients to actively avoid threats leading to falls as opposed to the framework that involves solely the prevention of falls using retaining the spatial arrangement of the patient’s environment. Specifically, the emphasis on the idea of patient education and the promotion of active training will allow the target population to keep their mental capacities robust and be aware of their surroundings (Dunsky, 2019). Thus, the threat of patients miscalculating or failing to identify the proximity to an object representing a potential fall hazard will be reduced to a noticeable extent.
Time Frame
It is believed that the change expected to be observed after the introduction of the proposed framework will take approximately three months to be implemented fully. At the same time, it is noteworthy that mental skill training represents an incremental process when applied regularly, therefore, one can anticipate a notably positive change in patients’ perception of obstacles to their movements within the target environment even further in the future in case the target population continues training. Given the fact that the human brain can retain its cognitive skills even as a patient ages as long as appropriate tasks and training options are introduced, it is believed that the described strategy will assist the patients in their efforts to maintain the clarity of mind needed to avoid falls in any environment.
Word Choice
In the course of the process of searching for the required evidence, elaborate word choices will have to be made. At the first stage of the process, namely, the identification of the problems, keywords such as “fall elderly,” “elderly falls reasons,” and “elderly fall causes” will have to be considered the specified choice of wording will help to locate the exact nature of falls in the target population and link it to mental health. Afterward, to examine the efficacy of the proposed intervention, keywords such as “aging adults fall prevention exercisers,” “aging adults fall physical exercisers,” and “aging adults fall mental training.” Remarkably, in the first keyword set, the term “training” was replaced with “exercises” to avoid the confusion of training healthcare experts to assist aging people with fall prevention. The specified choice of keywords for the search has helped improve the quality of the output and select the most relevant and credible resources.
Conclusion
Furthermore, to expand the bandwidth of the scope and introduce opportunities for discoveries into the research, other words were included. These “innovation,” “innovative technology,” “aging falls support,” and “aging people mental health falls” were included in the search. The specified keywords have helped locate the articles that explained the nature of the phenomenon and select appropriate intervention options. Finally, “falls elderly management digital tools” as a keyword has led to the discovery of a range of digital innovations allowing for fall prevention in aging people.
References
Dunsky, A. (2019). The effect of balance and coordination exercises on quality of life in older adults: a mini-review.Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 11, 1-10.
Gao, Z., Lee, J. E., McDonough, D. J., & Albers, C. (2020). Virtual reality exercise as a coping strategy for health and wellness promotion in older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.Journal of clinical medicine, 9(6), 1-10.
Li, F., Harmer, P., Voit, J., & Chou, L. S. (2021). Implementing an online virtual falls prevention intervention during a public health pandemic for older adults with mild cognitive impairment: a feasibility trial.Clinical interventions in aging, 973-983.
Melnyk, B. M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2019). Evidence-based practice in Nursing & Healthcare: A guide to best practice (4th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
Phirom, K., Kamnardsiri, T., & Sungkarat, S. (2020). Beneficial effects of interactive physical-cognitive game-based training on fall risk and cognitive performance of older adults.International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(17), 1-12.
Ye, C., Li, J., Hao, S., Liu, M., Jin, H., Zheng, L., & Ling, X. B. (2020). Identification of elders at higher risk for fall with statewide electronic health records and a machine learning algorithm.International journal of medical informatics, 137, 1-7.