Chronic Disease & Self-Management Programs
Falls Prevention Education
Falls are not a normal part of aging, but they are the leading cause of fatal and non-fatal injuries for older Americans, with one in four older adults falling each year. Such falls can result in minor bruising to more serious hip fractures, broken bones and head injuries.
In 2020, the National Council on Aging (NCOA) declared September 21-25, Falls Prevention Awareness week. In the past, the first day of fall was deemed Falls Prevention Awareness Day. To recognize the week, CPHA partnered with the Texas Active for Life® Coalition, Texas Healthy at Home, the Texas Association of Area Agencies on Aging (T4A), and Texas Health and Human Services Aging Services Coordination to bring a week of online programming concerning Falls Prevention in Texas. The programming featured evidence-based programming demos including Enhanced Fitness, led by the YMCA of Waco; Bingocize, led by program developer Jason Crandall; and Tai-Chi Moving for Better Balance, led by Amy Comer of the Houston-Galveston Area Agency on Aging.
Falls are not a normal part of aging, but they are the leading cause of fatal and non-fatal injuries for older Americans, with one in four older adults falling each year. Such falls can result in minor bruising to more serious hip fractures, broken bones and head injuries.
In 2020, the National Council on Aging (NCOA) declared September 21-25, Falls Prevention Awareness week. In the past, the first day of fall was deemed Falls Prevention Awareness Day. To recognize the week, CPHA partnered with the Texas Active for Life® Coalition, Texas Healthy at Home, the Texas Association of Area Agencies on Aging (T4A), and Texas Health and Human Services Aging Services Coordination to bring a week of online programming concerning Falls Prevention in Texas. The programming featured evidence-based programming demos including Enhanced Fitness, led by the YMCA of Waco; Bingocize, led by program developer Jason Crandall; and Tai-Chi Moving for Better Balance, led by Amy Comer of the Houston-Galveston Area Agency on Aging. In 2021, the Center partnered with several organizations from around the state to host Texas Falls Prevention Awareness Week and hosted resources and online programming on fallspreventiontexas.org.
Workplace Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (wCDSMP)
Noncommunicable diseases kill approximately 41 million people each year, according to the World Health Organization. Also known as chronic diseases, noncommunicable diseases tend to be results of a combination of factors—including genetic, physiological, environmental and behavioral—that occur over a long duration. The Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP), originally developed at Stanford University, uses a workshop format that teaches participants with chronic health conditions strategies and techniques for managing their health. These include exercising regularly, eating healthy and communicating effectively with family and health professionals. Although this popular evidence-based program has been tailored for specific conditions and translated into over 17 languages, the CDSMP program was only recently translated for use in worksite settings among working-age adults. The worker-oriented version of the program, wCDSMP, holds promise for similar successes among working-age adults, and with further research through a five-year grant program, CPHA and partnering researchers plan to develop a tool for enhancing the adoption of wCDSMP, thereby improving workplace health and reducing health care costs for millions of working Americans and their employers.
A Matter of Balance
For older adults, falls can be a serious occurrence. Roughly a quarter of American adults over the age of 65 fall in a given year, and about 20 percent of those falls result in serious injury or death.
One of the many factors affecting risks of falling and fall-related injuries is fear of falling. This is driven largely by a person’s fall-related efficacy, which is their level of confidence in standing or walking without falling. Several public health interventions have taken aim at reducing fear of falling, as improving fall-related efficacy can reduce risks of falling and improve physical activity in older adults. One such intervention, A Matter of Balance Volunteer Lay Leader (AMOB/VLL) model, has been in use for more than 20 years; however, synthesized analyses on the AMOB/VLL’s effectiveness are limited.
A Matter of Balance has been specifically designed and tested in order to reduce the fear of falling, stop the fear of falling cycle, and improve activity levels among community-dwelling older adults. The program consists of eight two hour classes (1x/week) or 16 one hour classes (2x/week), presented by trained coaches using an extensively detailed training manual and two instructional videos.