Through our allied health practitioners and in partnership with Balance Metrix, we are offering residential aged care facilities, retirement living and community centres a targeted falls risk mitigation strategy under the Better Balance Initiative™.

Who is leading this Initiative, how and why?

Dr Trevor Clark

The Better Balance Initiative is being led by former professional footballer Dr Trevor Clark, who is also a renowned researcher, sports scientist and strength & conditioning coach who has a keen interest in using metrics for falls risk mitigation inside aged care facilities and also in the community.

Dr Clark will be mentoring our allied health partners, attending onsite when he can, analysing the results of their activities, helping partners present to sponsoring organisations and helping Balance Metrix publish the results of the Initiative.

Pictured above is 93-year-old William Tyrell from Garden Village at Port Macquarie. Bill is happy for Balance Metrix to share his image and postural sway data to help us promote Balance Mat technology. Bill’s test results in the normal stance are shown in the first graph as a fairly straight line with a couple of blips. His score for that stance is 0.15. In the semi-tandem stance his results are displayed as a consistently spiky line and his score is 1.21. The test results scale on the Balance Mat are: Low: Zero to 0.30; Medium: 0.31 to 1.00; and High: 1.01 and above, so this puts Bill into the high falls risk category. This was not unexpected given his ripe old age and the fact that he has had several falls lately.

Residents at Garden Village Port Macquarie embrace innovative technology. They go on virtual reality trips around the world and now they’ve invested in a Multimetric Balance Mat.

So far, as well as Masters-qualified exercise physiologist Charlie Gordon at Burleigh Heads in Queensland, we have consultant physiotherapists Nitish Mathew and Saili Deodhar from Marulan in New South Wales as our allied health partners in the Better Balance Initiative.

Altogether, Balance Metrix is aiming for 10 physiotherapy and exercise physiology partners who run the Better Balance Clinic and Course in 10 different aged care or community group venues across Australia.

Charlie Gordon

Nitish Mathew

Saili Deodhar

How will the Balance Mat be used in the Initiative?

The Balance Mat is an Australian invention that has been developed in Canberra by Balance Mat Pty Ltd and approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) as a Class 1 medical device. It is a lightweight and portable computerised floor mat that connects to a laptop and saves people’s postural sway graphs and scores online in the Balance Mat test results system for comparison over time. Results can be downloaded, saved and emailed to clients and their healthcare providers and sponsors of the Initiative too.

The following graph illustrates the low, medium and high postural sway results of 232 people (equating to low, medium and high falls risk) – shown as green, amber and red – who had their balance tested on the Balance Mat between June and November 2024. This distribution holds true for different groups from different populations in around 2,000 tests that have been conducted on the Balance Mat to date.

It is people in the amber category (i.e. medium falls risk on the Balance Mat) that the Better Balance Course is aimed at. We want to see if the 10 course participants at each site will achieve some strength and balance improvements by the end of the 12 weeks.

Balance Metrix is sponsoring our allied health partners in the balance testing component by providing a complimentary Balance Mat valued at $2,373 ($2,610.30 incl. GST) for use in the Initiative and beyond. We are now seeking local residential aged care and community centre sponsors of the pop-up clinics and 12-week courses.

What exactly does this Initiative comprise?

The Better Balance Clinic™

This is a back-to-back pop-up health-check and balance testing clinic run by an allied health practitioner to screen participants for their suitability for the second part of the Initiative and offer individualised allied health appointments.

The Better Balance Course™

This is a 12-week, evidence-based strength and balance exercise course conducted by the allied health practitioner, with balance metrics data from the Balance Mat used to measure progress.

In the pop-up clinic, our allied health partners will screen as many people aged 65+ as possible to assess their falls risk. To do this they will draw on their extensive experience as either a physiotherapist or an exercise physiologist working with older people, as well as balance metrics derived from two 20-second tests on the Balance Mat in the normal and semi-tandem stances. From Balance Metrix business owner Ian Bergman’s experience at Hastings Medical Centre and other places he has found that these two tests are enough to arrive at an aggregate balance assessment.

Why do we need this Initiative?

Falls are a common problem for older people due to the neurological, skeletal and visual disorders that often affect them. The Better Balance Initiative will put participants’ minds at ease because they will discover their falls risk and be able to undertake a structured and enjoyable exercise course that will enhance their confidence in safely performing the activities of daily life. They will have some balance metrics from the Balance Mat as one measure that will go towards quantifying their success.

What sponsorship is sought?

Sponsorship of the professional allied health services described previously is $3,600 ($3,960 incl. GST), payable by invoice from Balance Metrix up-front.

In addition to their monetary contribution, sponsors are asked to provide a suitable venue for the clinic and course and also to distribute our advertising collateral to facility residents and community centre members. We are happy to take bookings but if it’s practical for you to do so we would appreciate it.

The falls risk assessment will be done onsite in a pop-up clinic arrangement with back-to-back half-hour $119 excl. GST clinical appointments (paid directly to the allied health partner by individuals with health fund, with Medicare or DVA rebates as applicable. Pop-up clinics and weekly workout times can be scheduled subject to practicalities. For example, some of our partners are happy to work on a Saturday, making the “pop-up” part of the Initiative a well anticipated event for residents and community centre members.

I’m interested. What do I do next?

Please send your expression of interest to Margaret Metz at margaret@balancemetrix.com.au or call mobile 0418 577 746.