How to reach families about new fall prevention products when communities say no?

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aronsemle Asked April 2019

How to reach families about new fall prevention products when communities say no?

My question has a slightly different perspective. I founded a company focused on a fall prevention solution for high fall risk residents in Assisted Living. I won't mention the product/company because I'm not here to promote it.

We encounter some communities that don't want to use the product because of liability concerns. However, families are usually our biggest supporter. For most of our customers, the loved one starts having falls and the family gets mad at the community. When this is going on we reach out to the Administrator (by chance) and they bring us in to show they are doing something. The solution reduces falls, and everyone wins.

So we're trying to figure out the best way to reach family members that are struggling with their loved one falling in a home, educate them on the product, and have them advocate for using it in a community. Our hypothesis is this will help break through the barriers some communities have.

Does anyone have ideas on how best to reach the families in this situation? Thank you!

Assisted Living Falls Mobility

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score 0 · Answer 1

The only thing I can say is make sure its not considered a restraint by the ALs and LTC facilities. State laws prevent such things being used.

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This is a great point, and one we're aware of. We're certainly in a gray area, and most of the feedback we've received from state surveyors is that it is not a restraint. Mostly because the resident doesn't hear the alarm and they can remove it themselves. We have 30+ customers today, and we haven't been removed yet.

It's a fun place to be as a startup :-)

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score 0 · Answer 2

No FDA approval required for what we're doing, but good point.

I'm looking more for... if I was in the position of having a loved one in Assisted Living falling, where am I going to find a solution? What am I searching for? What resources am I using?

Do you ask the staff for help and stop there? Do you start looking on the web? Are you comfortable requesting staff use a certain product?

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score 0 · Answer 3

As a small business just getting started you can contact your local small business administration for a wealth of resources. If you have a well established business then you may want to get the word out about your website via Facebook, Google and other forms of pop up ads. Most every website has an option for pop up ads. I know there are ways to put your products through the proper testing as medical aids but you will have to get your people to do the research on how to do that. Good luck!

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score 0 · Answer 4

You're right, we're doing fall reduction as there is no absolute way to prevent falls.

We haven't tried AARP yet, but that's something we can look at. We're looking for creative ways to find families struggling with this problem.

Thank you!

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score 0 · Answer 5

aronsemle, it is great that you are coming up with ideas on how to eliminate elder falls, we need people with great ideas, but in short there isn't anything that is going to prevent falls unless one duct tapes their love one to the wall.

UPDATE: There use to be a link for finding out about advertising on this website but I cannot locate that link any more :( Have you tried AARP for advertising?

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How to reach families about new fall prevention products when communities say no?

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