How AI Technology Helps One Senior Care Community Prevent Falls

Fall prevention is a key aspect in keeping senior care residents safe, but it’s also a tremendous, ongoing challenge for many communities. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over one in four older adults reports falling each year, and about 37% of individuals who fall experienced an injury that required medical treatment or restricted activity at least one day. Falls are also the leading cause of injury-related deaths in older adults age 65 and up.

Tawnya Williams-Christensen, ALM, CDP, CADDCT, CDCM, PAC, is Assisted Living Director and Social Services Director at Fellowship Square-Mesa

Tawnya Williams-Christensen, ALM, CDP, CADDCT, CDCM, PAC, is assisted living director and social services director at Fellowship Square-Mesa, a not-for-profit Christian care community in Mesa, Arizona. Fellowship Square-Mesa offers independent living, assisted living, and memory care, but despite their best efforts to prevent falls, resident falls remained an ongoing safety issue. The community decided to try an AI technology solution and has so far seen highly encouraging results.

The Challenge of Fall Prevention

As assisted living director, Williams-Christensen implemented many fall prevention practices, but with limited results. “We do mandatory education to our team members on a quarterly basis, she says.” Residents are educated on wearing their RCare devices, a wireless nurse call and personal emergency response system. They’re also encouraged to ask for help when they’re not feeling well.

“We do safety sweeps as needed or every eight hours, we add assurance checks to as many as one per hour, we do fall assessments, and we still go in circles trying to get residents to ask for help, or put fall mats near them so in case they do fall they don’t get hurt,” says Williams-Christensen. “It becomes a cycle that never ends with very little improvement or reduction in falls.”

The community has used fall prevention technology previously, beta testing various fall detection devices that didn’t perform well enough to put into effect for all residents. “We found very early on that we aren’t interested in fall detection. We are interested in fall prevention,” she explains. “We believe in being proactive versus reactive, and based on the technology we have reviewed, there is not much out there that aligns with our philosophy of care.”

Implementing Fall Prevention Technology

When Fellowship Square-Mesa’s Vice President of Operations, Jon Scott Williams, received a recommendation about a virtual assistant technology platform that could help prevent falls, he followed up and learned more about the technology. “Our campus is very fluid with technology, and we are open to learning about new technology and what we can do to better support our residents,” explains Williams-Christensen.

The technology, a radar device called ‘Paul’ manufactured by Helpany, analyzes residents’ motion patterns to report residents at risk of falls. Williams-Christensen notes that it doesn’t use cameras or any audio or recording devices, and residents don’t have to wear it. Instead, the technology measures each resident’s motion in their apartment or living space. Staff can access information via a dashboard and an app. The technology also turns on certain motion detectors for residents who have been identified as being at risk of falls. When they move, it notifies caregivers’ cell phones so they can check on the residents before falls occur.

Recognizing that a deliberate approach is key to successful technology onboarding, Fellowship Square-Mesa held many focus groups, listening to staff and resident concerns. They also tailored the onboarding approach to each group of residents, performing different presentations for memory care, assisted living, subsidized living, and independent living residents and families. “We had multiple opportunities for the residents and staff to give feedback to their experience,” says Williams-Christensen. “The most important thing we did was listen to all pints of view and help them find comfort in the technology.

The community implemented Paul in July 2024, beginning with its assisted living communities. Williams-Christensen notes that Helpany supported them through the entire installation and provided all the training. Prior to installing the technology, the community averaged 20 resident falls per month. In July 2024, after implementing Paul, the community experienced 12 falls. In August, falls decreased to six. In September, October, and November, four falls occurred each month. And in December, just two falls occurred. From August through December, no falls occurred overnight.

Strategies for Implementing New Technology

While change can be difficult, the results the community has seen since using Paul signify just why it is important to change. “You cannot manage what you cannot measure,” says Williams-Christensen. “Paul measures the residents’ quality of sleep, strength in gait, and movement. Paul creates a weekly report for each resident to review and from that report they can choose what to work on.” She receives daily information on which residents to watch and who is more subject to a fall and usees that information to maximize safety and her staff resources.

Williams-Christensen recommends that senior care communities take the time to explore and test out new technologies and talk to the other communities that are using it. Before installing the technology community-wide, she suggests doing smaller beta trials in your community while working closely with the inventors and companies launching the technology. “Learn the technology fully before passing on it or accepting it,” she says.

While concerns over AI technology are still quite common, Williams-Christensen is a believer in the power of this technology to enhance resident care and safety. “This technology is an industry changer,” she says. “It will allow all of us to serve our communities on a much more efficient person-centered basis.”

Paige Cerulli

Paige Cerulli is a contributing writer to i Advance Senior Care.