Resident safety
use their walking frame with the resident and at each staff hand over. Being creative to encourage hydration, maybe having smoothies, and recognising that referrals from a medication reviews might need chasing up.
12. Download and print out our Falls Prevention Guidance to give to residents and families as people move into the home. Keep copies handy to keep the falls conversations alive. These are available at
https://www.reactto.co.uk/ resources/react-to-falls/.
13. Staff, residents and visitors are encouraged to use all the ACTiON Falls material to keep their knowledge up to date. An app that provides hints and tips to reduce falls risks is available on both Android and Apple devices.
14. Consider setting up a community of practice between care home staff to discuss falls. Our research showed that our ACTiON Falls can reduce fall rates, but it did not stop all falls. As with all health interventions, they do not work with everyone and care home staff should be able to talk freely.
Conclusion
Falls in care home residents are common, unpleasant, costly, and difficult to prevent, but by using a systematic approach such the ACTiON Falls programme, then falls can be reduced and the intervention is cost effective.
By implementing it in care homes, care homes can demonstrate they are using the most effective and up-to-date interventions that are backed up by published high- quality research evidence and the benefits of this are broad.
The resident does not have to suffer the fall and related injuries, the care home staff do not feel guilty or upset, the resident has greater independence for longer so does not
need increasing care, family and friends are satisfied and the care home is providing the best quality service.
References 1. Public Health England, Falls: applying All Our Health,
https://www.gov.uk/government/ publications/falls-applying-all-our-health/ falls-applying-all-our-health
2. Robertson K., MacDonald A., Preventing falls in care homes, Geriatric Medical Journal, 2013
https://www.gmjournal.co.uk/ preventing-falls-in-care-homes
3. Age UK, Later Life in the United Kingdom, 2019
https://www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/ age-uk/documents/reports-and- publications/later_life_uk_factsheet.pdf
4. Department of Health, Falls and fractures - Effective interventions in health and social care, 2009
http://www.laterlifetraining.
co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/ FF_Effective-Interventions-in-health-and- social-care.pdf
5. Laing W., Care homes for Older People market analysis and projections, LaingBuisson, 2017
6. Robertson K., Logan P.A., Conroy S., Dods V., Gordon A., Challands L. et al, Thinking falls - taking action: a guide to action for falls prevention. Br J Community Nurs. 2010;15(8):406-10
7. Cameron I.D., Dyer S.M., Panagoda C.E., Murray G.R., Hill K.D., Cumming R.G., et al, Interventions for preventing falls in older people in care facilities and hospitals, Cochrane database of systematic reviews, 2018(9)
8. Multifactorial falls prevention programme compared with usual care in UK care homes for older people: multicentre cluster randomised controlled trial with economic evaluation. Logan PA, Horne JC, Gladman JRF, Gordon AL, Sach T, Clark A, Robinson K, Armstrong S, Stirling S, Leighton P, Darby J, Allen F, Irvine L, Wilson ECF, Fox C, Conroy S, Mountain G, McCartney K, Godfrey M, Sims E. BMJ. 2021 Dec 7;375:e066991. doi: 10.1136/ bmj-2021-066991. PMID: 34876412; PMCID: PMC8649897
9. A multi-domain decision support tool to prevent falls in older people: the FinCH cluster RCT. Philippa A Logan, Jane C Horne, Frances Allen, Sarah J Armstrong, Allan B Clark, Simon Conroy, Janet Darby, Chris Fox, John RF Gladman, Maureen Godfrey, Adam L Gordon, Lisa Irvine, Paul Leighton, Karen McCartney, Gail Mountain, Kate Robertson, Katie Robinson, Tracey H Sach, Susan Stirling, Edward CF Wilson and Erika J Sims, Health Technol Assess 10.3310/CWIB0236 2021
38 Pip Logan
Pip Logan is professor of rehabilitation research, faculty of medicine & health sciences at the University of Nottingham School of Medicine. Pip gained her PhD at the University of Nottingham, a randomised controlled trial evaluating an outdoor mobility intervention for stroke patients. She has received two National Institute for Health Research fellowships and she also works clinically for Nottingham City Care Partnership (NHS) in the community rehabilitation team and in the Acute Hospital for the Health Care of the Elderly Directorate.
n
Adam Gordon
Adam Gordon is professor of care of older people and a consultant geriatrician at Royal Derby Hospital. He is President Elect of the British Geriatrics Society. He has been doing research in and with care homes for over a decade and is focussed on brining the best evidence-based healthcare to residents.
www.thecarehomeenvironment.com April 2022
©konstantin yuganov
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