Physiotherapy Management of Postural Instability

Overview

Physiotherapy has a very prominent role to play in the assessment and treatment of balance problems and fall prevention strategies. Older adults also represent a growing demographic for physiotherapy care across settings of practice

This course will be presented in 2 sessions. They will cover the assessment and treatment of balance problems in older adults. These sessions will provide evidence-informed best practices covering:

1. Balance and control systems for postural stability;
2. changes with aging that affect balance;
3. Assessment of postural stability – choosing clinical balance tests; and
4. Interventions to improve postural stability.

This course is Part 1 of this 2 part series.

Speaker: Dr. Susan Hunter

Dr. Susan Hunter PT PhD is an Associate Professor in the School of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. She is a Physical Therapist with 32 years of clinical experience and has a PhD in Epidemiology and Biostatistics, both from the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Hunter’s research interests are the rehabilitation of geriatric patients, particularly the cognitively-impaired older adult, and their experience of falls, frailty and mobility decline. She also has special interest in fall prevention among patient populations of lower extremity amputees, lower extremity joint arthroplasty and Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Hunter was a member of the Steering Committee for the World Guidelines and co-lead for the World Guidelines Working Group on Cognition and Falls. She was also on the international panel of rehabilitation experts in dementia working on the WHO’s Rehabilitation Program on Rehabilitation Interventions for People with Dementia published in 2023. She is the past Vice-President of the International Association of Physical Therapists Working with Older People (IPTOP) and former Chair and Executive Committee member of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association Seniors’ Health Division.