Our Story

Before The Break is a nonprofit organization devoted to raising public awareness about the prevalence and devastating consequences of untreated osteoporosis in aging adults residing in assisted living and long-term care facilities in the United States.  The Before the Break Education Initiative is the vision of our founding director, Dr. Mary Crowe, DO. 

​​

During her time at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) in Erie, PA, Dr. Crowe developed a sense of duty to educate a special subset of the aging population residing in assisted living facilities. She found this population to be poorly targeted for preventive maintenance of their bone quality and susceptible to falls and complicated hospitalizations due to osteoporotic fragility fractures.  Supported by LECOM, Dr Crowe and her peers incorporated osteoporosis education into learning modules for the residents and found that the majority of aging adults residing in assisted living and long-term care facilities desired to reduce their chances of suffering a fracture, experiencing pain and avoiding complicated hospitalizations.  They found it particularly rewarding to educate the family members of those aging adults with cognitively debilitating diseases, whom still stood to benefit from reducing their risk of hospitalizations and pain.  Before The Break nonprofit is the expansion of their vision to improve the quality of life for aging adults residing in assisted living and long-term nursing facilities within the United States.

​

​