Refreshing conventional paradigms of falls prevention and management

Learning objectives: 

1. Gain a critical perspective about contemporary approaches towards falls prevention and management practice based on the globally obtained consensus guidelines.
2. Identity detection and intervention strategies suitable for destitute homes and active ageing centres.
3. Describe current evidence towards addressing falls efficacy.
4. Describe current evidence on effective balance training programs for people with Parkinson’s.

Symposium Speaker and Convenor: Dr Shawn Soh Leng Hsien, Singapore Institute of Technology

Topic Title: Rethinking the approach of falls efficacy

Biography: Dr Soh Leng Hsien (Shawn) is a Senior Lecturer in the Health and Social Sciences Cluster (Physiotherapy) at Singapore Institute of Technology. He is involved in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. Shawn is passionate about research areas surrounding falls efficacy, measurement instruments, and psychometrics. He is leading several local and international research collaborations. Through his PhD, he extended the concept of falls efficacy, developed the world’s first balance recovery confidence scale and has published ten papers as the first author in various international peer-reviewed journals. He was awarded the best oral presenter at the World Physiotherapy-AWP Regional Congress 2022. He is presently the Topic Editor, Insights into Falls Efficacy and Fear of Falling, Frontiers in Aging and the Editorial Board Member, Journal for Frailty, Sarcopenia and Falls (JFSF). He serves as an invited peer reviewer for several journals.

Speaker: Professor Dawn Skelton, Professor of Ageing and Health, Ageing Well Research Group, Research Centre for Health (ReaCH) School of Health and Life Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland, United Kingdom.

Topic Title: What’s new from the World guidelines of falls prevention and management

Biography: Dawn Skelton is Professor of Ageing and Health in the Department of Physiotherapy and Paramedicine at Glasgow Caledonian University. She Co-Leads the Ageing Well Research Group and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.

As an Exercise Physiologist, she has a keen interest in exercise rehabilitation within a falls prevention scope, from the hospital based physiotherapy delivery to the community based specialist exercise instructor provision. Her current research ranges from motivation and patient preference to engaging the very frail, increasing adherence to long term exercise and working with the pre-frail to prevent poor outcomes later. Implementation, fidelity and quality of evidence-based interventions when delivered in different settings is also her passion.

She chaired the Royal Osteoporosis Society’s Statement on Exercise and Osteoporosis (2018) and the Older People panel for the UK’s update of the Physical Activity for Health Guidelines (2019). She is currently Chair of the British Geriatrics Society Rehabilitation Group and is part of the Community Rehabilitation Alliance and the National Falls Prevention Co-ordination Group within Public Health England. She is a Member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Older People and Frailty Policy Research Unit (OPFPRU) funded by the NIHR. In her spare time she is a Director of the not for profit training company, Later Life Training, based in Killin, Perthshire.

Speaker: Ms Yong Limin, Senior Principal Physiotherapist, Healthcare Manpower Division, MOH Holdings

Topic Title: Rethinking detection and intervention strategies for destitute home and active ageing centres.

Biography: Ms Yong Limin is experienced in building, managing and developing Allied Health Professionals team/services in various healthcare settings and has achieved effective geriatric rehabilitation care outcomes. She is currently seconded from MOHH to Vanguard Healthcare as the head of Allied Heath. She led the development of Methodist Welfare Services therapeutic activities and programs and built NTUC Health Centre of Excellence (Allied Health). She also contributed to National One Rehab Framework, collaborated with Health Promotion Board on community preventative program development and participated in Singapore Institute of Technology Physiotherapy curriculum review as Principal Project Administrator of Ministry of Health Chief Allied Health Officer’s Office. She adopted innovative technology for NTUC Health nursing homes intensive rehab and transitional care program which achieved significant discharge rate for aging in place, expanded Bright Vision Hospital Rehab Services team, developed Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital Day Rehabilitation Services and developed Physiotherapy Mobility & Falls Management service in Singapore General Hospital. Limin is skilled in geriatric physiotherapy with focus on falls prevention.

Speaker: Assistant Professor Aileen Eugenia Scully, Singapore Institute of Technology

Topic Title: Rethinking balance and falls specifically in people with Parkinson’s

Biography: Dr Aileen Scully is an Assistant Professor in the Health and Social Sciences Cluster (Physiotherapy) at Singapore Institute of Technology. She is involved in the training of both student and graduate physiotherapists. Aileen has over a decade of experience managing people with neurological conditions in the inpatient, outpatient, and home settings. She previously led the neurological rehabilitation physiotherapy team at Singapore General Hospital and championed various clinical services within the specialty. Since 2012, she has participated in research projects centred on people with neurological conditions, with a special focus on people with Parkinson’s disease.