When a parent or other elder loved one who lacks mobility moves into a nursing home, you want to feel confident that facility staff are going to be there to help when need arises. Research shows, though, that your loved one faces a higher risk of falling when living in a nursing home, as opposed to in alternative settings.
According to Industrial Safety & Hygiene News, your loved is actually four times more likely to die due to injuries sustained during a fall when he or she lives in a nursing home. Certain risk factors, such as poor vision or health, may make your loved one more prone to falling. However, well-run nursing homes should have protocols in place to prevent these falls as much as possible.
Research about nursing home falls
Statistics show that three-quarters of today’s nursing home residents suffer serious falls on an annual basis. Also, between 16% and 27% of those falls are the direct result of environmental factors, many of which are avoidable.
Many nursing home resident falls occur because of factors that might include wet floors, cluttered hallways and so on. In other instances, residents fall because they do not receive the mobility help they need when they need it.
The understaffing factor
Many American nursing homes lack adequate staff. If your parent lives in one, you may have valid concerns about him or her not getting the help needed to go to the bathroom, get out of bed and so on. The more significant the understaffing problem is, the higher the likelihood of your parent not getting the mobility help he or she needs to prevent falls.
