Imagine your phone ringing at 3 a.m., blasting you out of your slumber. Your heart almost freezes in fear, expecting the worst.
It’s the aged care facility your loved ones are living in. They’re calling to say your elderly loved one has had a fall which left them lying unconscious for over an hour.
They’re being rushed to ‘ER’ now.
Sadly, as per statistics reported by the CDC:
- One in 4 older people (over the age of 65) fall
- Each year, at least 3 million older people are treated in emergency rooms for fall injuries every year
- Each year at least 300,000 older people are hospitalised for hip fractures
- More than 95% of hip fractures are caused by falling, usually by falling sideways
Falling is a serious health risk for older people and can result in broken bones and brain injuries.
Falls that go undetected can even lead to dehydration and hypothermia and be extremely detrimental to mental health.
But WHAT IF something could be done to alert caregivers or hospital staff in real-time as soon as a fall takes place.
As magical as that sounds, fortunately, such a thing exists.
Falls Detection Systems
Here are 5 reasons it is important to have a fall detection system in place at residential aged care facilities or the homes of the elderly.
- Fall detection systems can detect the occurrence of a fall and instantly alert caregivers or a central monitoring station. They activate an alarm even when the seniors are unable to do so themselves.
- By helping rush emergency aid to the elderly, fall detection systems can prevent the senior from lying helpless for hours or even days. This helps prevent life-threatening conditions like dehydration, hypothermia, and severe intracranial bleeding.
- Older people feel less fearful that they’ll fall and carry on with their daily activities without a sense of trepidation knowing there is an extra layer of security looking after them and feel less of a burden to others.
- Fall detection devices provide the elderly with the freedom to live independently in their own homes, safe in the knowledge that aid will be rushed to them as soon as they might need it.
- For aged care facilities, fall detection systems (that also can monitor vital signs) can reduce the number of visits caregivers need to make. This reduces caregiver requirements, resulting in reduced caregiver and healthcare costs.
Falls detection systems that use radar sensing technology are a godsend for seniors living in their own homes or aged care facilities.
Like eazense Powered by SOFIHUB; a passive, real-time fall detection system for the elderly based on new unique radar sensor technology with AI. This multifunctional device monitors the presence of people in a room and offers live fall detection, without the need for a wearable. eazense is connected to the Sofihub cloud portal and sends alert notifications to caregivers in case of an emergency.
You can check it out here.
Bottom line?
Falls detection devices can SAVE lives.
All the more reason for you to keep your eyes peeled for upcoming posts – where we go deeper into how fall detection devices work and how radar sensing technology can improve the quality of life of the disabled.