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Emphasis on mental health awareness has grown tremendously in the recent years. Living through the COVID-19 pandemic brought more people to realize that taking care of our mental health is equally as important as taking care of our physical health.

Clinicians at The Ohio State Martha Morehouse Outpatient Clinic were seeing an extreme increase in patients expressing mental health concerns – many specifically related to past trauma. This brought about a new partnership for the LIFT Lab. Beginning in May of 2021, LIFT Lab team members and Martha Morehouse clinicians have been working together to improve clinicians’ ability to implement Trauma-Informed Care (TIC). This Quality Improvement study is an on-going multi-pronged approach to empower clinicians to treat their patients more holistically.

The National Council on Aging and the U.S. Administration for Community Living has selected the Community-FIT – CARES paper (Assessment of Fall Related Emergency Medical Service Calls and Transports after a Community Level Fall Prevention Initiative) and partnership with the Upper Arlington Fire Division as one of four EMS-Academic partnerships they will be showcasing on a national scale for their fall prevention efforts this year. Dr. Catherine Quatman-Yates and Dr. Carmen Quatman will discuss their work and partnerships to develop and implement an effective model for community paramedicine engagement in fall prevention. This recognition is not only a great honor, but a huge leap towards getting more support and promoting policy change at the national level.

The webinar series called “Fire and Falls” will be held on September 1, 8, 15, and 22 at 1:00PM. Definitely check out the webinar on September 8 as it will feature the fantastic CARES paramedicine program that is based out of central Ohio.

Register for the webinar here!

Preview of Dr. Quatman-Yates and Dr. Quatman’s webinar section here!

The Ohio State’s Chronic Brain Injury program (CBI), Wexner Medical Center’s rehabilitation team, and the undergraduate student group Buckeyes Raising Awareness in Neuroscience (BRAIN) support an ongoing workshop for survivors of brain injuries and other neurological conditions. The series called NeuroNights builds wellness skills and community connections through interactive seminars for survivors, their caregivers, and their family members.

Dr. Quatman-Yates and members of the LIFT Lab were invited to run a series of presentations based off the lab’s activities focused on the healing powers of physical activity for individuals living with chronic brain injury. The presentation included high-level details around the LIFT Lab’s Chronic Brain Injury Funded CBI PLAAY project. The CBI PLAAY project aims to better understand the barriers and facilitators survivors of traumatic and acquired brain injury face when attempting to live a physically active lifestyle. The overarching goal for the series of presentations was to spread awareness and understanding of the benefits of physical activity and to find ways to support CBI survivors to be physically active for live. The lab team spoke about the positive effects physical activity has on the brain, how to measure the intensity of exercise with the Rate of Perceived Exertion Scale, and different opportunities to include exercise into everyday life. They also, led participants through a series of seated exercises that could be utilized at home.
A special thanks to Kedar Hiremath, MBA, MPH, the head of NeuroNights, for arranging this opportunity!

Click here for more information about NeuroNights and for the recordings of the presentations!

If you or someone you know has suffered a CBI and would like to participate in the CBI PLAAY study, click this link to set up an enrollment meeting! https://calendly.com/tbi-plaay

Carmen Quatman, MD, PhD and Catherine Quatman-Yates, DPT, PhD created the Community-centered Fall Intervention Team (Community-FIT) by utilizing an implementation science framework alongside of quality improvement methods. This fall prevention model of care brings the research world to front-line workers in an applicable improvement model. In the community in which it was trialed, the program indicated a reduction in both the number of fall-related 9-1-1 calls and fall-related 9-1-1 calls resulting in transports to the hospital. Community-FIT is a program that can be employed in emergency medical agencies across the country and can have an abundant impact on a multitude of communities.

See this pamphlet about the program: Community-FIT fact sheet
Check out the most recent publication here!