Getting up after a fall
Can you learn to fall safely and get up again?
Yes. You can learn how to land in a way that protects your bones, and you can practice a step-by-step way to get up from the floor.
Articles and videos
Clinician-written pieces on aging in place, fall prevention, and caregiving, plus videos as we add them. Practical, plain-spoken, and built around one idea: safety and independence are partners, not opposites.
Articles
Longer reads from Dr. Russ L'HommeDieu, DPT, on the real decisions families face at home.
Fall prevention 9 articles
Fall detection
I've fallen and I can't get up
Why the button on a pendant so often goes unpressed, and how radar, Wi-Fi sensing and LiDAR let the home itself notice a fall.
Physical therapy
Physical therapy for balance: what it is and whether Medicare covers it
A physical therapist (PT) tests your strength, walking, and balance, finds what is driving your fall risk, and builds an exercise plan to fix it.
Community programs
Tai chi, Otago, and A Matter of Balance: finding a fall prevention program in Tampa Bay
Several fall prevention programs have strong research behind them, including tai chi, the Otago Exercise Program, Stepping On, and A Matter of Balance.
Exercise
The exercise that actually prevents falls
The exercise that prevents falls combines strength training with balance work that truly challenges you, done standing, several times a week, for months.
Fall prevention
How do I prevent falls at night?
Most night falls happen on the way to the bathroom. Light the path, set up the bed, get up in stages, and review medicines with the prescriber.
Confidence
Afraid of falling? How fear raises your risk and how to rebuild confidence
Some caution is healthy. But when worry about falling makes you move less, your muscles weaken, your walk changes, and your risk actually goes up.
Self-check
Three 5-minute tests to check your fall risk at home
Three short tests used by doctors and therapists can give you a quick picture of your strength and balance: the 30-Second Chair Stand, the 4-Stage Balance Test and the Timed Up and Go.
Fall prevention
Is it normal to fall as you get older?
Falls are common as people get older, but they are not a normal or expected part of aging.
Health and medical 15 articles
Oxygen safety
Oxygen Safety at Home: A Complete Guide for Patients and Families
A practical guide to Medicare coverage, oxygen equipment, pulse oximeters, fire prevention, cylinder storage, fall risks and power outages at home.
Hip fracture
After a hip fracture: recovering at home and preventing the next fall
Recovery at home depends on three things: a house that is ready, exercise that keeps progressing, and a plan to prevent the next fall.
Dementia
Dementia and home safety: routine, wandering, and keeping changes familiar
Dementia and mild cognitive impairment double the risk of falling and of getting hurt in a fall.
Stroke recovery
Home safety after a stroke: setting up for one-sided weakness
After a stroke, the home has to fit a body that now works differently on one side. The safest setup is built around how the person actually moves today, not how they moved before.
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease and falls: freezing, falling backward, and what helps
Parkinson's disease raises fall risk in ways that are different from ordinary aging. About 25% of people fall in the first year after diagnosis.
Bone health
Bone health after 65: vitamin D, calcium, and osteoporosis screening
Fall prevention has two jobs: fewer falls, and less harm when a fall still happens. Strong bones handle the second job.
Bladder health
Bladder urgency, nighttime bathroom trips, and falls
If you often rush to the toilet, or get up two or more times a night to use the bathroom, your fall risk is higher.
Hearing
Hearing loss and falls
Yes, hearing loss and falls are linked. Hearing loss raises fall risk on its own, apart from age and other health problems.
Feet and footwear
Your feet, your shoes, and your balance
Your feet are part of your balance system. When they lose feeling, hurt, or sit in loose or slippery shoes, your brain gets poor information about the ground, and a fall becomes more likely.
Low vision
Living with low vision at home
Low vision means vision loss that glasses cannot fully correct, and it roughly doubles the chance of a fall.
Vision
Bifocals and stairs
Bifocals and other multifocal lenses can make stairs, curbs and thresholds harder to see, because you look down through the reading part of the lens.
Vertigo
Vertigo when you roll over in bed: BPPV
If the room spins for a few seconds when you roll over in bed, lie down or tip your head back, the cause is often BPPV (benign paroxysmal positional vertigo).
Talking to your doctor
What to ask your doctor about falls
Your doctor may not ask about falls unless you bring them up, so plan to raise the topic yourself.
Dizziness
Dizzy when you stand up? Orthostatic hypotension and falls
If you feel lightheaded, woozy or "gray" for a moment when you stand up, your blood pressure may be dropping too far as you rise.
Medications
The medicines that make falls more likely
Many common medicines can make a fall more likely, especially when several are taken together.
Room by room 9 articles
Garage and laundry
How do I make trips to the garage and laundry safer?
Garage and laundry trips combine several fall risks at once: a step down, a hard floor that may be uneven or slick, poor lighting and something heavy in your arms.
Floors
Are throw rugs and tile floors a fall risk?
Yes. Removing or securing throw rugs is the first item on the list of fall fixes to make today.
Kitchen
How do I make the kitchen safer?
The biggest kitchen fall risks are reaching up high, bending down low and climbing on a chair to get something.
Stairs
How do I make stairs and steps safer?
Most stair falls can be made less likely with a few changes: handrails on both sides for the full length, light switches at the top and bottom, and step edges that clearly stand out.
Bathroom safety
Bathroom Grab Bars: Placement, Anchoring and Blocking
Where grab bars belong, how each anchoring method compares, why solid wood blocking is the gold standard, and how to document it.
Pets
Pets underfoot: loving your pet without tripping over it
You do not have to give up your dog or cat to stay safe. Pets are a real trip hazard, and leashes can pull people off balance, but a few habits and small changes to the home can lower the risk.
Bathroom safety
What grab bars do I actually need in the bathroom?
Where grab bars usually go, what the standards say, how to anchor them, and why suction cups and towel bars are not the answer.
Florida homes
Is a lanai sliding door a fall risk?
Raised tracks, heavy impact glass and a step down to a wet lanai: how to check a sliding door and fix it without breaking its storm rating.
Home layout
How do I make a sunken living room safe for a walker?
Why one step down is riskier than a full staircase, and three ways to make a sunken living room work for a walker user.
Equipment and technology 7 articles
Technology
Can a robot vacuum tell you if Mom has fallen?
A robot vacuum with a camera can find someone who has fallen and open a two-way call. It cannot catch every fall, so it works best as one part of a bigger safety plan.
Remote caregiving
Video Cameras for Mom & Dad: A Move Toward Safety and Independence, or a Nanny State?
A physical therapist on what home cameras showed him about his own mother, the bathroom paradox, and a compassionate use guideline for families.
Veterans
Keeping Veterans Safe at Home: What I Learned Putting Smart Technology to Work
A former VA Home Safety Coordinator on the smart home devices that kept veterans safe, and how they actually reach a veteran through the VA.
Technology
Medical alert devices and fall detection: what to know
A medical alert device can get help to you faster after a fall. It does not stop the fall from happening.
Mobility devices
Cane or walker? Choosing the right one and the right height
The right mobility aid, sized correctly and taught well, helps prevent falls. The wrong one, a damaged one, or one you were never shown how to use can cause them.
Access options
What's the difference between a ramp, a threshold ramp and a lift?
Threshold ramps, full ramps, platform lifts and stair lifts compared on rise, space and cost, plus pre-built ramp options and how to choose.
Storm readiness
How do I keep a power wheelchair or oxygen working in a hurricane?
Utilities will not restore you first. Backup oxygen, battery planning, generator safety and Tampa Bay special needs registration, before June.
Cost and coverage 7 articles
Caregiver pay
Medicare GUIDE and caregiver pay programs: a 2026 state-by-state guide for families
Medicare GUIDE gives dementia families a care navigator, a 24/7 line and up to $2,625 a year of respite. Here is who qualifies, and every other way a family caregiver can get paid or relieved.
Oxygen coverage
Home Oxygen Equipment: What Insurance and Medicare Cover
What Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Florida Medicaid, the VA, TRICARE and private insurance cover for concentrators, portable units and oxygen tanks.
Funding
How do I pay for home modifications in Florida?
Original Medicare generally does not pay for grab bars, raised toilet seats, shower chairs, ramps or stair lifts.
Aging in place
PACE and the Safe Home: How Tampa Bay Families Can Make Staying Home Work
How PACE brings nursing home level care to the home, who qualifies in Florida, and how to get the house ready so the plan works.
Medicare
What Medicare does and doesn't pay for in fall prevention
Medicare pays for much of the medical side of fall prevention: checkups, therapy, and equipment like walkers.
Cost and coverage
Does Medicare pay for a home safety assessment?
What Medicare may and may not cover, other programs that can help, and how our home safety consultations are paid.
Consumer guide
Is a free contractor home safety check really free?
Why free safety checks are usually sales appointments, what a clinician sees that a contractor may not, and your rights when you sign at home.
For families 6 articles
For families
How do I talk to my parent about falls without a fight?
Start with what your parent wants, not with what scares you. Talk about staying independent and doing the things they love, rather than about "falls." Use the word "concern" instead of "fear," offer choices instead of orders, and expect this to be several conversations, not one.
For families
What are the signs my parent may be at higher fall risk?
Watch how your parent moves, not just what they say. Holding on to furniture to get around, pushing up hard with their hands to stand, shuffling or slowing down, and avoiding stairs or outings are all signs worth noticing.
Family caregiving
Safety squad: getting grandkids involved in keeping a grandparent's home safe
Hazard hunts, night light patrol, tech help and storm prep: age-by-age safety jobs grandkids can take on, and what to leave to adults.
Independence
Five ways your home can help a parent stay independent
Independence is a fit between a person and a place. Five areas of the home that keep a parent going out, moving, and cooking for themselves.
Long-distance caregiving
How can I check on a parent's safety from another state?
Make video calls a real safety check, choose technology your parent agrees to, and build a local team you can call within an hour.
Aging in place
Can my parent age in place in their current home?
Signs the home is still working, signs it is not, what the evidence says about making it work, and the four questions an assessment answers.
Planning a home safety visit 5 articles
Aging in place
Aging in place in Tampa Bay: the benefits, and is the house ready?
Why staying home is worth it, the Florida ranch-home traps that get in the way, and four signs aging in place can work.
Choosing an assessor
Who does a home safety assessment, and is a PT or OT the right person?
Physical therapists, occupational therapists, ATPs, CAPS builders and free contractor checks compared, with six questions to ask anyone who assesses a home.
Hospital discharge
What should the house have ready before a hospital discharge?
The four places that must work on day one, what can safely wait, and who actually checks the house before someone comes home.
Buying a home
Should we buy a one-story home before retiring in Florida?
One story is a start, not the finish. Florida-specific traps, a ten-point tour checklist, and how to buy for the next 20 years.
Before you book
What happens during a home safety visit?
The planning call, the 60 to 120 minute visit, the fall risk tests we use, and the written photo report and prioritized plan you keep.
Aging in place · Caregiving
The Quiet Negotiation: Safety, Independence, and Compassion
Why you cannot subtract your way to safety, and how families can protect what matters most without shrinking the life they are trying to protect.
Home safety assessment · Veterans
The Fight For Freedom: Home Safety Assessments
A framework from a decade of keeping veterans safe at home: impairments and impediments, the human factor, and why the simplest technology is often the best.
White Papers
In-depth, referenced reports for families, clinicians and referral partners. Free to download.
White paper · Fall prevention
Understanding Fall Risk and Fall Prevention
Why older adults fall, how risk is screened and assessed, and the interventions that work: exercise, medication review, vision, the home and more. Start with our fall risk quick check.
Videos
We are producing short, practical videos on home safety and caregiving.
No videos are posted yet. When we publish one, it will appear here alongside the articles.
Have a topic you would like us to cover? Call (813) 365-9171 or email info@homesafety.solutions.
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