DPCA2-2_issue_v3

Falls prevention in older adults with diabetes
“All primary care
practitioners should
have access to
education about
falls prevention, and
every attempt should
be made to provide
comprehensive
and individualised
education about falls
to older adults with
diabetes and where
appropriate, their
caregivers and family.”
Authors
Anna Chapman, Research Fellow,
School of Primary Health Care,
Monash University, Melbourne, Vic;
Claudia Meyer, Research Fellow,
Centre for Health Communication,
School of Public Health and Human
Biosciences, La Trobe University,
Melbourne, Vic. Both are at the
RDNS Institute, St Kilda, Vic.
appropriate preventive strategies. A diagnosis
of diabetes in an older adult should trigger to
primary care practitioners the potential for
increased falls risk. Systems need to be established
in the diabetes care pathway to enable falls
risk screening to be performed annually. All
primary care practitioners should have access
to education about falls prevention, and every
attempt should be made to provide comprehensive
and individualised education about falls to older
adults with diabetes and where appropriate, their
caregivers and family.
n
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74 Diabetes & Primary Care Australia Vol 2 No 2 2017