Fall Prevention Poster Wins National Recognition

A community project titled “Cane Closet: Fall Prevention at No Cost!” by Coral Li, a rising fourth-year student in the College of Medicine, was selected as a poster winner at the American Academy of Family Physicians’ (AAFP) National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students.

The Ohio Academy of Family Physicians announced the award in its Weekly Family Medicine Update.

Li explains the project:

Falls are a prevalent societal and global health issue. Fall-risk screens are available, but for most it is the use of an assistive mobility device that offers the solution to preventing falls. The purchase of a walker, however, may not be feasible for the uninsured underserved community. This was the reason behind Cane Closet. I’m from Toledo, Ohio, and co-founded Cane Closet a few years ago as a non-profit outreach organization to provide the underserved community in Toledo with access to assistive mobility devices at no cost to the patients.

We have collected over $3,000 worth of mobility devices in free donations and have redistributed them to appropriate patients after thorough fall-risk evaluations by qualified physical therapists. If each distributed device prevented one fall-related hospitalization, Cane Closet potentially reduced a significant amount of healthcare costs simply by reusing mobility devices. Cane Closet participates in public health events and has partnered with several local health organizations and hospital programs, using a multidisciplinary team approach, to provide healthcare and resources to the underserved population.