Fallproof!: A Comprehensive Balance and Mobility Training Program

The second edition of FallProof! continues to be the only text to address the multiple dimensions that contribute to balance and mobility. By exploring the reasons underlying falls, readers gain the knowledge to offer more comprehensive assessment and programming. This research-based approach is field tested and has shown considerable success in a range of instructional settings, including community-based and residential care environments.

The FallProof! program is customizable for individual clients, with exercise progressions for early, middle, and late class modules. In addition, it offers the following benefits:

• Flexibility. Program participants can engage in group activities that take into account their individual abilities so that the program is not too easy or too difficult for them.

• Guidance. Safe and easy ways of presenting each of the program’s exercise components are illustrated, addressing issues ranging from safety concerns to the best ways to offer feedback to participants.

• Supplemental materials. Reproducible health, assessment, and program-related questionnaires help instructors gather crucial information for effective programming.

• Results. The FallProof! program has been proven to reduce the risk of falling in participants who’ve completed one or more rotations of the program.

Now packaged with a DVD, this second edition makes the information in the text applicable to real situations. The bound-in DVD shows how to administer key screening and assessment tests, demonstrates selected exercise progressions for the major program modules, and features a sample FallProof! class session in action.

Debra Rose, PhD, is a professor in the division of kinesiology and health science and director of the Center for Successful Aging at California State University at Fullerton. She also serves as codirector of the Fall Prevention Center of Excellence at the University of Southern California. Her primary research focus is on the enhancement of mobility and the prevention of falls in later years.

Dr. Rose is nationally and internationally recognized for her work in assessment and programming for fall risk reduction. Her research in fall risk reduction in the elderly has been published in numerous peer-reviewed publications, including the Journal of the American Geriatric Society, Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Neurology Report, and the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity. She was an expert contributor to the Global Report on Falls Prevention inOlder Age published by the World Health Organization in 2007.

The innovative fall risk reduction program she developed and describes in this manual was recognized by the Health Promotion Institute of the National Council on Aging (NCOA) in 2006 as a “Best Practice” program in health promotion. This program is currently being implemented in numerous community-based settings and retirement communities throughout the United States. The NCOA also awarded Debra the Molly Mettler award for Leadership in Health Promotion for her work in the area of fall risk reduction in 2007.

Debra is a fellow of the Research Consortium of AAHPERD, a fellow of the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education, former executive board member of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity, and past editor in chief of the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity.