# Understanding the SAFE STEPS for Veterans Act of 2025

This bill creates a new office within the Department of Veterans Affairs specifically focused on preventing falls among veterans. Falls are a serious health problem for older adults and people with disabilities, often leading to broken bones, hospitalizations, and loss of independence. The bill recognizes that veterans—particularly older veterans and those with service-related disabilities—face significant fall risks and deserve coordinated, specialized care to prevent these injuries.

The heart of the bill establishes an Office of Falls Prevention led by a Chief Officer who will oversee a comprehensive approach to keeping veterans safe. This office will develop standards of care for fall prevention across all VA facilities and programs, monitor whether those standards are being followed, and help fix problems when they're not. The office will also coordinate different VA programs that help prevent falls, including home modification grants that help veterans make their homes safer by adding things like grab bars or ramps. Additionally, the bill requires the VA to run a national education campaign to teach veterans at risk for falls, their families, and their doctors about fall prevention strategies and available resources.

The bill also requires specific changes to how the VA provides care. Veterans in VA nursing homes who have fallen or are at risk of falling must now receive formal fall risk assessments and prevention services from physical therapists or occupational therapists. The VA must also update its policies on safe patient handling techniques across all facilities, ensuring staff are trained in how to safely help veterans move and transfer without causing falls. The bill also directs the VA to work with the National Institute on Aging to research what falls prevention programs work best for veterans, including studying how home modifications help and how medications might increase fall risk.

Finally, the bill requires the VA to study its current falls prevention efforts and report back to Congress within two years about what's working, what gaps exist, and whether the VA should expand home modification programs to help more veterans prevent falls in their own homes.

SAFE STEPS for Veterans Act of 2025

Budzinski, Nikki

Supporting Access to Falls Education and prevention and Strengthening Training Efforts and Promoting Safety initiatives for Veterans Act of 2025 or the SAFE STEPS for Veterans Act of 2025This bill addresses certain mobility and aging care and services provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).First, the bill requires the establishment and operation of the Office of Falls Prevention within the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) for purposes of providing, evaluating, and improving VA health care services related to falls prevention.Among other duties, the office must oversee and support a national education campaign for veterans, their families, and health care providers that focuses on reducing falls and increases awareness of available benefits or services provided by the VA to reduce falls.The bill also expands membership of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on Healthy Aging and Age-Friendly Communities by including the VA.The VA must issue or update directives of the VHA for facilities and providers relating to safe patient handling and mobility policies.Additionally, the VA must determine the feasibility and advisability of implementing a pilot program to provide home improvements and structural alterations to prevent falls for veterans who are eligible for such services under VA laws.Finally, the bill requires the VA to ensure certain veterans receive a falls risk assessment from a licensed physical therapist or occupational therapist.