Here’s a link from the National Senior Games in PA this year talking about SAFE: The Games Daily - Sustained Athlete Fitness Exam (SAFE) - 2023 NSG presented by Humana - YouTube
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We’ve consistently used the SignupGenius for volunteer clinicians/students to sign up to participate and it’s worked well. We’ve also used SignupGenius to sign up athletes for a specific time, to help manage the flow of athletes not having to wait a long time to be screened. Sometimes this has worked great, sometimes not. When it hasn’t, it seems it is when the events for the day are very fluid, without much time in between the events and lots of the schedule changing depending on win/losses, such as in a basketball tournament. Plus we take “drop ins” in addition to the scheduled sign up genius athletes.
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I’d also recommend reaching out to your chapter to see if they have any interest in partnering with APTA Geriatrics to put on a SAFE event. In doing this, we’ve expanded to more volunteers, have more funds to print signs and educational handouts. Last year we put on a SAFE event as part of PT Day of Service and it was very successful. (This year is Oct. 21).
@tessa.wells
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Plus it is a great recruitment for new members, working with your chapter, in a fun event!
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Another idea to recruit volunteers, we went to a local PT Pub night with info about our SAFE event, had a sign with a QR code that went directly to our SignupGenius volunteer scheduling, making it easy to signup.
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Hi Beth! (Or All who have done a SAFE event)
I’ve been asked by the Nevada Senior games how much space and equipment we would need for the screening.
Aside the medical stuff like BP cuffs, etc.
I think we would need one treatment table, a check in/results table, and then a chair for every station and maybe a table for the station so we can set down equipment we aren’t needing.
Am I way off on that or does anyone have any recommendations of how to request how much space is needed?
Thanks so much!
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Typically there are 8 stations and Gait Speed is the one that needs the largest area:
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- Check in
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- Vitals
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- Anthropometrics
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- Fast Gait Speed
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- Grip Strength/FTSTS
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- Flexibility
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- Balance
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- Education
And then it depends on how many volunteers you think you’ll have, I’d suggest a minimum of 8, one per station. With many students, we’ve often had 2-4 per station and multiple assessments happening at the same time, or sometimes 2 pairing up to do the assessment together.
50 ft x 30 ft is a nice space but might not be available. The Gait speed station can be done in a hallway separate from the rest of the stations, but I’d be cautious about distractions if others will be using the hallway.
- Education
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For a large event, this is the floor plan we used for the National Games in 2019:
SAFE Floorplan_4.pptx (52.2 KB)
But a small event would need much less space.
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Have you been in touch with Becca & Wendy yet? I would do this right away if you haven’t. They updated an online training in 2022 that is full of resources and info you can use for planning and volunteers. There may be an even more updated course since then.
SAFE online course description and objectives_22.pdf (132.7 KB)
Dr Becca Jordre’s email: becca.jordre@usd.edu
Wendy Vivier’s email: wkviviers@gmail.com
@Katielandier
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You also may need to consider extra space and chairs for athletes participating in multiple events or for less ambulatory or non ambulatory participants. We had some individuals with comorbidities and elevated BPs at shuffleboard and Bocce venue that used AD for longer distance ambulation that needed to sit to do health questionnaires while swimmers typically didn’t unless did stations in between races. State games are more inclusive of varying ability levels and less conditioned individuals. Also easier to do education at quieter end of hallway if feasible[quote=“Katielandier, post:6, topic:120, full:true”]
Hi Beth! (Or All who have done a SAFE event)
I’ve been asked by the Nevada Senior games how much space and equipment we would need for the screening.
Aside the medical stuff like BP cuffs, etc.
I think we would need one treatment table, a check in/results table, and then a chair for every station and maybe a table for the station so we can set down equipment we aren’t needing.
Am I way off on that or does anyone have any recommendations of how to request how much space is needed?
Thanks so much!
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We just had our first SAFE since Covid at the Senior Games in New Mexico. We’ve done several in the northern part of the state, home to a larger population of PT/PTAs, but this is the first one we did in the south. It was very challenging to get volunteers to participate for 2 main reasons: 1) lack of awareness of SAFE by those PTs/PTAs; 2) the event was scheduled on a weekday and during the day. Our Senior Games really wanted us to be there on that day, the day of a Health Fair. This was difficult to get clinicians to participate. Luckily we tapped into many students. We don’t have any PT or PTA programs in NM in that area, so I approached schools in El Paso, TX, less than an hour away. One of the PTA schools brought their entire class of 20, plus 3 faculty, so that filled in our volunteer pool immediately. We also worked with other students from that area: kinesiology and osteopathic. Those students helped out in the Check in, Vitals and Circumferential measurement stations. Also one OT. Still very much PT-led, but broadened out the volunteer pool.
We were also extremely supported by our New Mexico Senior Olympics. They had access to some state funding that needed to be used by the end of the month! We bought additional equipment, printed signs, handouts, consents, report cards with these funds. Very fun to have money to spend to support this and future SAFEs. Plus we were able to print some cool t shirts that each athlete who participated received, plus all volunteers.
We’re hoping that after this first event in the south, we’ll be better known by local PTs and PTAs and will help sustain their participation in future events.
