News (Prior to 2005)

Fall Prevention Center of Excellence Gets Off the Ground (October 2004)

In October 2004 the Archstone Foundation funded the Fall Prevention Center of Excellence. The center will involve the collaboration of USC Andrus Gerontology Center, the Center for Successful Aging at Cal State Fullerton, the Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center at the VA's Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, UCLA, and the State of California's Department of Health Services.

The Fall Prevention Center of Excellence will allow the various institutions to conduct assessments and trials to determine the best ways to prevent falls among mature adults. The center will also provide training for professionals in the areas of home modification so that they are aware of what environmental changes to lessen the chances of falling in the home. There will also be training in medication management so that health professionals can learn that the interaction of certain drugs makes mature adults more prone to falls. The Fall Prevention Center of Excellence will create a model on preventing falls that can be implemented in other areas of the country.

The co-directors of the center are Jon Pynoos PhD, Debra Rose, PhD, and Laurence Rubenstein, M.D., M.P.H. Dr. Pynoos is the director of the National Resource Center on Housing and Home Modification and a professor of gerontology at the USC Andrus Gerontology Center. Dr. Rose is a professor of kinesiology at Cal State Fullerton and the developer of Fall Proof Program™. Laurence Rubenstein, M.D., M.P.H. is the director of Greater Los Geriatric and Clinical Center at the VA's Los Angeles Healthcare System and a professor of geriatrics at UCLA.

Preventing Falls in Older Californians (Feburary 2003)

State of the Art (Invitational Conference, Sacramento, California, February 5-6, 2003) The goal of the conference was to engage a select and representative group of recognized leaders in California's health and human services for older adults to establish "A California Blueprint for Fall Prevention." Click on the link above for the background White Paper that was prepared for the conference. (Download PDF)

Creating a California Blueprint for Fall Prevention (February 2003)

Proceedings of a Statewide Conference (Invitational Conference, Sacramento, California, February 5-6, 2003) This Conference Proceedings document was written based on the presentations by speakers, and the creative input by all the participants in the workgroups. This document and the White Paper document (see above) provides building blocks for a long-term collaborative effort to reduce the risk of falls for California's diverse elders. (Download PDF)