ELYSBURG - Dr. Mary Stout announces the opening of The Balance Center and Fall Prevention Clinic, in Suite 2 of Central PA Prosthetics and Orthotics, 173 S. Market St.
Stout said the facility is dedicated to serving society's escalating demand for reducing both the fear and risk of falling.
The center, the first of its kind in the area, establishes individualized programs that apply effective motor learning interventions and select valid and reliable measures of mobility to reduce the risk and fear of falling.
The consequences of falls in older adults have been well documented. One in three persons over 65 years of age and almost one in two persons over 80 will fall at least once each year, according to Dr. Mary E.Tinetti's article in the New England Journal of Medicine. It is documented that 5 percent of falls result in serious injury; however, the psychological effects, one being fear, can lead to impaired mobility, loss of function and an overall decrease in a person's quality of life, according to Kathy Berg, a Canadian physical therapist and developer of the Berg Balance Test.
The focus of the center is to reduce the risk and fear of falling by applying a movement-based approach utilizing perturbations, including Wii-hab, and functional movement patterns, in addition to an extensive assessment of risk factors such as visual deficits, footwear and the fear of falling.
The Wii-hab experience can be adapted to almost any patient and provides virtual task-based activities that cause movement patterns to emerge, allowing the therapist to focus on patient posture, weight shift and motor control.
The Wii activities have functional corollaries allowing transition from Wii treatments to functional restoration.This system allows visual feedback training and valuable information on each patient's center of mass, which is utilized to equalize weight bearing. The most recent research reports that task-based activities or motor-learning interventions have better outcomes than weight training. Studies are coming out regularly on the application of Wii-Fit for balance rehabilitation in elderly people who experience recurrent falls.
Combining the Wii-Fit with traditional physical therapy interventions has been shown to enhance an elderly patient's participation in the interventions and improve balance performance. When the patient is finished with physical therapy at the balance center, many may choose to continue to work on their function at home, performing the Wii-Fit with their family members.
Wii-Fit rehabilitation is highly specialized to each patient and should not be attempted without professional intervention for balance. All patients are provided with an increased awareness of fall risk factors that are crucial in helping adults, caregivers, families and service providers to effectively reduce and prevent falls.
"While my commitment is to provide expert, compassionate care, the primary goal is to optimize patient outcomes," Stout said. "The program is based on the most recent and advanced research available to reduce fear and fall risk in daily life while improving postural control in older adults. It emphasizes a critical part of reducing fall risk, which is often overlooked - the fear factor."
For more information or an appointment, call Stout at 672-2277.