Identifying and Managing Frailty in Therapy Care for Older Adults

Course overview

Frailty is NOT a consequence of aging. Frailty is recognized as a multisystem condition wherein total physiological reserve is decreased, becoming insufficient for maintenance and repair. Frailty is a progressive condition that begins with a preclinical stage, providing opportunity for early detection and prevention. Assessment of frailty risk, and numerous strategies to stabilize or even reverse this decline will be discussed. This program will focus on the topic of frailty as a clinical issue that reaches across geriatric settings and conditions, challenging clinicians to think comprehensively about modifiable factors within therapy encounters to optimize long-term outcomes for aging adults. This content is universally applicable to patient care management in allied health. While the assessment tools and intervention strategies reach across all practice settings, they are most relevant to physical therapy practice.