Your tips: how to support someone after a fall

[HarrietD]

Every issue our magazine includes real life experiences, and they want to hear from you. This time, we're asking what advice would you give to make sure a person with dementia who’s had a fall gets the support they need?

Do you have any tips about what to do after this has happened? Is there anything you've done or changed as a result, or anything that's helped to manage this?

Please feel free to add your comments below, and they may be featured in the next issue of the magazine.

Thanks everyone

 

[HarrietD]

Hi everyone, I'll be closing this thread next week but there's still time to share any tips on supporting someone after a fall. Anything you'd like to share on this topic could really help other people reading the magazine

 

[Bunpoots]

Hi Harriet,

I found it very difficult to get any help which would really work after a PWD starts to fall. My dad did not understand the need to use a Zimmer, or even his stick as he thought he was fine!!

An alarm would have been no good either as he wouldn't have remembered to use it.

We had the usual OT visit but they couldn't really suggest anything that would've worked for dad either.

The one thing I did find useful was an inflatable pouffe .. not recommended by any of the health professionals...but we used it to get him up after a fall. We'd get him to lift his bum off the floor, while he was lying down, then slide the deflated pouffe under him and sit him up. Then inflate the pouffe under him while he held on to his Zimmer. Someone needed to support him from behind. But dad could pull himself up from this position and we wouldn't have to wait for hours and hours for an ambulance to turn up.

We used to send the carers into another room while we did this so they wouldn't get into trouble.

That was our solution...probably no use to anyone else.

I would like to add that most of dad's "falls" were actually rolling off the sofa while asleep and landing on soft carpet totally unhurt - and he used to find the whole procedure hilarious!!

 

[Pouli]

Hi Harriet,

I found it very difficult to get any help which would really work after a PWD starts to fall. My dad did not understand the need to use a Zimmer, or even his stick as he thought he was fine!!

An alarm would have been no good either as he wouldn't have remembered to use it.

We had the usual OT visit but they couldn't really suggest anything that would've worked for dad either.

The one thing I did find useful was an inflatable pouffe .. not recommended by any of the health professionals...but we used it to get him up after a fall. We'd get him to lift his bum off the floor, while he was lying down, then slide the deflated pouffe under him and sit him up. Then inflate the pouffe under him while he held on to his Zimmer. Someone needed to support him from behind. But dad could pull himself up from this position and we wouldn't have to wait for hours and hours for an ambulance to turn up.

We used to send the carers into another room while we did this so they wouldn't get into trouble.

That was our solution...probably no use to anyone else.

I would like to add that most of dad's "falls" were actually rolling off the sofa while asleep and landing on soft carpet totally unhurt - and he used to find the whole procedure hilarious!!

My OH has 'fallen' out of bed a couple of times. Actually, what he does is pull himself into a sitting position. The mattress then goes gently down under his bottom, and he slides gently off onto the floor. I keep the bed at its lowest at night so he hasn't hurt himself. My lovely carers helped get him back to bed, but they really aren't supposed to.
So now we have moved the bars towards the foot of the bed so there is only a small gap now. At night, I push the bed close to the wall, and on the other side I push a large easy chair against the small gap. Fingers crossed, this works well.

 

[HarrietD]

Thanks so much @Bunpoots and @Pouli for sharing your experiences around this. Much appreciated

 

[Louise7]

My tip would be to raise any changes in behaviour following a fall with the hospital/GP as this could be due to an unidentified injury and/or pain. In my Mum's case, after being admitted to hospital following a fall we were informed that the change in her behaviour (severe agitation) was due to delirium caused by an infection. We were told that she now needed 24hr care and she was subsequently admitted to a care home where various changes in medication, including anti-psychotics, didn't help. After another fall 8 months later Mum could not stand up and the hospital stated that this was due to dementia and she now needed a nursing home. To cut a very long story short, when we finally managed to get an x-ray done it transpired that Mum had a fractured spine which had been missed previously. The severe agitation disappeared once Mum was given effective pain relief.

 

[Pouli]

My tip would be to raise any changes in behaviour following a fall with the hospital/GP as this could be due to an unidentified injury and/or pain. In my Mum's case, after being admitted to hospital following a fall we were informed that the change in her behaviour (severe agitation) was due to delirium caused by an infection. We were told that she now needed 24hr care and she was subsequently admitted to a care home where various changes in medication, including anti-psychotics, didn't help. After another fall 8 months later Mum could not stand up and the hospital stated that this was due to dementia and she now needed a nursing home. To cut a very long story short, when we finally managed to get an x-ray done it transpired that Mum had a fractured spine which had been missed previously. The severe agitation disappeared once Mum was given effective pain relief.

Crikey. No wonder she was agitated. It's quite horrifying to think she suffered for so long. You'd think, as she was in hospital, an Xray would have been done as a matter of course.

 

[Louise7]

Yes, poor Mum. She was in pain for months and had to leave her home and go into care The first time she fell they took some x-rays but not the area of the injury. A subsequent x-ray of the area of the injury apparently 'missed' the fracture, and on a third occasion the consultant refused to carry out an x-ray, stating firstly that Mum was too agitated then that the x-ray table would be too hard on her back!! It beggars belief that an elderly lady who had had a fall, was covered in bruises and was unable to stand up was refused an x-ray.