Each year more than one in four older adults, age 65 and older, experience a fall, resulting in about 3 million emergency department visits, 950,000 hospitalizations and 32,000 deaths. Many of these falls are preventable. The CDC Foundation, with leveraged technical resources from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is developing user-friendly fall prevention resources for older adults and their caregivers. This program is supported by Amgen.

This five-year project will create digital resources to help older adults assess their risk of falls and develop a plan to mitigate that risk by speaking with their healthcare provider and caregiver. It will also include a communications campaign to educate and provide key tools for caregivers to help them talk to their loved ones about their risk for falls and ways to prevent falls and fall-related injuries.

Sign up for news and email updates about this program at CDC.gov/falls.
 

Why Fall Prevention Matters

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – “Every second of every day an older adult falls in our country. We know that falls are preventable and are not an inevitable part of aging. The resources created through this partnership can help reduce falls, prevent injuries, and save lives.” – Debra Houry, MD, MPH, Director, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control

Amgen – “The CDC Foundation’s fall prevention initiative shines a spotlight on an important and preventable health risk for older adults. A broken bone resulting from a fall can be a life-altering event. For people with osteoporosis whose bones may be weak and more likely to fracture, it is especially important to take the proper steps to prevent a fall. Supporting this program reinforces our commitment to care that helps to predict and prevent the impact of serious diseases, like broken bones due to osteoporosis, before they happen.” – Darryl Sleep, MD, Senior Vice President of Global Medical and Chief Medical Officer

CDC Foundation – “Falls are responsible for far too many injuries in this country, but they are preventable. We’re pleased to partner with Amgen on this important issue to provide key resources and information to our aging community and those who care for them. With screening, assessing and intervening, we can reduce the risk of falls and improve health.” – Judy Monroe, MD, President and CEO

OUR PARTNERS

Learn More About Our Partners

In July 2021, the CDC Foundation and CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control worked with DC Design, a social impact and design strategy firm, to host public, federal and private partners at the Warrior Built: Strengthening the Eco-System for Veteran Suicide Prevention convening. This was the first convening of its kind focusing on the collaborative impact with state health departments. The convening was designed to: 

• increase linkages between state/local public health partners, community-based veteran-serving organizations and private sector partners;
• to catalyze state and community action; and 
• to activate public-private partnerships that help fill gaps and create more opportunity around an upstream approach to veteran suicide prevention. 

As part of this initiative, the CDC Foundation utilized a human-centered design approach to identify partner needs and potential opportunities for collaboration to help advance the upstream approach to veteran suicide prevention. 

From the convening, persona profiles and stakeholder priority documents were created to highlight the gaps between partners and the individual needs of each group. These resources are provided for partners to share with other organizations working in the field.

The CDC Foundation continues to work on building resources and tools to share with the veteran and military community to enhance communication, increase partnership, and support partners as they work together to implement upstream veteran suicide prevention programming. This webpage will be updated as new resources are developed. 

Blog from November 2021: Building Better Relationships to Serve Veterans

Disparities in Suicide: 

• Veterans have an adjusted suicide rate that is 52.3% greater than the non-veteran US adult population. 
• People who have previously served in the military account for about 13.7% of suicides among adults in the United States. 
• In 2019, 1.6% of former active-duty service members aged 18-25 years reported making a suicide attempt during the previous 12 months. This was an increase from 0.9% in 2009.

This webpage is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $140,000 with 100 percent funded by CDC/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by CDC/HHS, or the U.S. Government.