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HEALTH PROMOTION
Both physically and mentally, falls can be one of the most debilitating incidents to affect older people. In this feature, the QNI's KAREN DANIEL examines two projects which seek to address the problem
'Falls are possibly one of the most frustrating problems for staff because prevention is truly difficult for residents who are not aware of their own limits, safety or risks.'
Voluntary sector care home manager
Most people if they live to be old, will have successfully negotiated many of the obstacles life has presented them with. Older people are resilient but talk to many of them, and falls are a genuine concern. Falls can rob an older person of their independence, self-confidence, mobility and, at worst, life itself.
In 2001 the National Service Framework for Older People1 identified falls as a priority area. And today, an increasing number of community nurses - and nursing teams - are devising innovative ways of tackling the problem. Two such projects have been funded through the Queen's Nursing Institute's Innovation and Creative Practice Award scheme and both have established great blueprints for best practice which can be adapted for vulnerable, older people anywhere.
Falls prevention programmes
'Intergenerational Falls' is a Northumberland-based initiative which has brought children and older people together in a falls prevention programme targeted at local men and women still living at home.
By contrast the Gloucestershire-based 'Active Ageing in Care Homes', is providing support and training to care home staff to enable them to deliver active ageing sessions for older people, as part of a falls prevention management.
Both initiatives are helping empower older people to overcome the risk of falls with a combination of advice, expertise and exercise which is already having a beneficial impact on a problem which will grow as the older population grows over the coming decades.
A serious public health issue
Falls and their consequences have long been recognised as a serious public health issue by the present government. Standard 6 of the NSF for Older People,1 aims to: 'Reduce falls which result in serious injury and ensure effective treatment and rehabilitation for those who have fallen.' It also challenges the NHS to work with local authorities and partnership agencies to fulfil this end.
Falls...