Identifying and Managing Frailty in Therapy Care for Older Adults
Presented by Kathryn Brewer
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Nonfinancial: Kathryn Brewer is a residency faculty member for the Mayo Clinic Geriatric Physical Therapy. She is also a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute merit reviewer and an Osteoporosis International peer reviewer. She has no competing nonfinancial interests or relationships with regard to the content presented in this course.
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.
Meet your instructor
Kathryn Brewer
Dr. Brewer graduated with her degree in physical therapy from The Ohio State University and received her Master of Education degree from the University of Cincinnati. Her doctorate degree is from Temple University. She has been certified as a geriatric specialist by the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialists since…
Chapters & learning objectives
1. Definitions and Interrelationships: Comorbidity, Frailty, Disability
Therapists should recognize contributing factors and risk of prefrailty and frailty based on clinical and biomedical characteristics and provide objective data with evidence-based assessment. Concepts associated with transitions from robustness to functional decline are presented and promote timely and effective therapeutic interventions.
2. Screening: Identifying Risk Factors Related to Frailty
Standardized objective measures that identify the frailty phenotype are discussed. Social frailty and life space are recognizable as significant contributors to the progression of frailty. Evidence for preclinical disability markers will also be reported.
3. Opportunities and Recommendations
Implementing a plan of care to address frailty will expand goals to include health behaviors and physical activity recommendations, including referral to health and community networks for necessary support and integrative services to stabilize, prevent, or reverse frailty components. Advocacy strategies for inclusion of comprehensive functional assessment across all care settings are shared to assist with early identification and access to therapy services for older adults at risk for frailty.
