HHS Falls Prevention Funding: Where Home Assessment Fits
On October 9, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and its Administration for Community Living announced up to $27.8 million over three years to expand falls prevention programs for older adults. That is good news. It is also worth reading closely, because what the announcement funds and what it leaves out both matter to anyone who works inside people’s homes.
What the Funding Covers
According to the HHS release, the money supports three initiatives. The first is a clinical-community partnership demonstration built on two established programs, STEADI and Stepping On, in five geographies. The second is statewide expansion of those programs through referral networks. The third is a National Falls Prevention Resource Center.
National Council on Aging received two awards, $4,781,733 and $7,500,000. Eight statewide recipients received roughly $1.83 million to $1.94 million each, subject to availability of funds.
The release also states why the work matters. Falls are the leading cause of injury for people 65 and older. One in four older adults falls each year. Non-fatal falls account for an estimated $80 billion a year in healthcare spending.
What the Announcement Does Not Say
The release does not name home modification or home hazard assessment as funded activities. It lists home safety among the risks that Stepping On addresses, and that is as close as it comes. The funding goes to organizations that run programs. It does not go to households.
Families should not read this as money for grab bars, ramps, or lighting. If that is the question in front of you, the funding picture looks different, and we walked through it in our guide to home modification funding.
Screening Finds the Risk. The Home Is Where Much of It Lives.
This part is my read, not the release’s. ACL’s Mary Lazare is quoted in the announcement saying that knowing someone is at risk is only the first step. I agree, and I would add a question the release does not take up: what happens at the front door once a risk has been identified?
A screening can tell a clinician that a person is at higher risk of falling. It cannot tell anyone how the stairs are lit, whether the bathroom entry has a threshold, or how far it is from the bed to the toilet at night. Those are facts about a house, and someone has to go look at them. We covered that split in The Two Halves of Fall Prevention, and the rural pilots in The Missing Link in Falls Prevention show how much the home-level follow-up matters in practice.
Who Does What at the Home Level
Again, this is interpretation. Occupational therapists evaluate how a person moves through a space and what that person needs to do there. Remodelers and builders carry out the changes. Designers plan layouts that hold up for years, not months. Real estate professionals help families see what a home can and cannot support before a move or a purchase.
What these roles need is a shared way to assess the home side of falls prevention. That is the work our CAPS certification training is built around. If you already work in a clinical or community program, it gives you a structured way to answer what comes after the screening. The research behind home-level change is laid out in What the Research Actually Says About Home Modifications and Fall Prevention.
A Practical Question for Your Own Workflow
When a client is flagged as a fall risk, what is the next step in your process, and who is responsible for the home? If the answer is unclear, that gap is where families get stuck, and it is where trained professionals can help.
Funding for programs is moving. The work at the front door still needs people who know what to look for. If you want to build that skill, register for the next CAPS course.
Fritzi Gros-Daillon, MS, CAPS, SHSS, is an NAHB Master Instructor and 2019 NAHB Educator of the Year. She teaches CAPS courses nationwide and consults with builders, remodelers, designers, OTs, and real estate professionals on aging-in-place home assessment and modification.
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