An elderly parent has fallen at home: what to do now, and how to be ready next time

The first minutes: check before you lift

Your instinct will be to pull your parent up straight away. Wait. Lifting someone who has broken a hip or hurt their neck can make it worse, and lifting an adult wrongly can injure you too. Stay calm, kneel next to them and ask how they feel.

1. Are they responsive? If they do not respond, or are not breathing normally, call 995 at once and follow the operator’s instructions.
2. Ask where it hurts. Look for bleeding, a limb at an odd angle, or pain in the hip, back or neck.
3. Did they hit their head? A head injury in an older person, especially one on blood thinners, needs medical attention even if they feel fine.
4. Are they confused or speaking oddly? A fall can be caused by a stroke, a heart problem or low blood sugar.

When to call 995

Call 995 (the Singapore Civil Defence Force emergency ambulance) if any of these apply:

• They are unconscious, very drowsy or not breathing normally.
• They hit their head, or have a cut that is bleeding heavily.
• They have severe pain, especially in the hip, back or neck, or cannot move a limb.
• They are confused, their speech is slurred, or one side of the face or body is weak.
• They cannot get up, even with help, or have been on the floor a long time.

For an injury that is not life-threatening, a GP clinic or a polyclinic may be the right place. SCDF’s 1777 non-emergency ambulance line stops on 1 January 2027; after that, private ambulance operators (listed at go.gov.sg/pao) take non-emergency trips, and the NurseFirst helpline (6262 6262) gives medical advice. While you wait for an ambulance, do not give food or drink, keep them warm with a blanket, and if they can, help them change position gently every so often.

If they are unhurt: helping them get up in stages

If your parent says they are not hurt and want to get up, let them do as much as possible themselves. Bring a sturdy chair close. Then, slowly:

1. Help them roll onto their side, then onto their hands and knees.
2. Let them crawl to the chair and hold its seat with both hands.
3. With their stronger leg forward and foot flat on the floor, they push up and turn to sit on the chair.
4. Have them sit and rest for a few minutes before standing or walking.

If they cannot get up this way, do not keep trying to lift them. Make them comfortable on the floor with a pillow and blanket, and call for help.

Afterwards: why a doctor’s visit still matters

A fall is often a sign of something else: a new medicine, an infection, dehydration, low blood pressure on standing, poor eyesight or weaker legs. Even if your parent seems fine, tell their doctor. Ask for a falls risk check, a medicine review and an eyesight check. Watch them for the next day or two for new pain, headache, drowsiness or confusion, which can show up late after a head knock.

The fall nobody sees

The fall that worries families most is the one with nobody there. In a study of people aged over 90 in Cambridge, UK (Fleming and Brayne, BMJ, 2008), 60% fell during the year, and 82% of the falls happened when the person was alone. Of those who fell, 80% could not get up after at least one fall, and 30% lay on the floor for an hour or more. A long lie was linked to serious injury, hospital admission and moving into long-term care, and call alarms, although widely available, were not used in most of those long lies. In Singapore, 88,400 residents aged 65 and over lived alone in 2025. If your parent is one of them, plan in layers:

• An SOS button within reach. By the bed and in the bathroom, where falls are common, or carried. It only helps if it is pressed, so it is one layer, not the whole plan.
• Someone who notices silence. A daily call at a set time, a neighbour or the Active Ageing Centre. These work best with a rule for what happens if there is no answer.
• Sensors that notice missing movement. A motion-sensor system notices when the usual activity of a day does not happen, even if nobody presses anything.
• A key arrangement, so whoever responds can get in without breaking down the door.

How Birdhouse helps

Birdhouse does not detect the fall itself. It notices what usually follows a fall when someone lives alone: movement stops. Suggested rules alert the family when there has been no movement anywhere for 4 hours during the day, or when someone has been in the bathroom for 45 minutes with no movement elsewhere, and you can tighten them to your parent’s routine. An optional SOS button reaches everyone at once, at any hour. Read how dynamic monitoring rules work, and compare approaches in the guide to fall detection devices.

Preventing the next one

Many falls in older people happen at home, and many can be prevented with small changes: better lighting at night, removing loose mats, grab bars in the bathroom, and strength and balance exercise. Work through the fall prevention checklist for HDB flats, and check whether your parent qualifies for HDB’s EASE programme.