title: Are elderly people at risk of falling taught how to get up again?
abstract: It is recommended that patients at risk of falling should be taught how to get up from the floor. Clinical experience suggests, however, that this is rarely done. A stratified random sample of members of the special interest group of physiotherapists working with elderly people in England and Wales (PT: n = 50) and all members of the corresponding occupational therapy group (OT: n = 41) were surveyed to ascertain whether or not this impression was justified. The response rate was 80% with 67 usable replies (74%, PT: n = 38, OT: n = 29). Replying to an open-ended question about their usual management of instability and tendency to fall, only four physiotherapists (11%) and six occupational therapists (21%) indicated that would they teach such elderly people how to get up from the floor.
authors.affiliation: Division of Geriatric Medicine, St George's Hospital Medical School, London.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Salkin
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000517:prevention & control*; D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills; D009788:Occupational Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D026741:Physical Therapy Modalities / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors; D014852:Wales