Action Falls Toolkit

Falls in older people living in care homes and long-term care facilities are twice as likely to occur as people living in their own homes. They can lead to broken bones, distress, fear and pain for the older person and worry, guilt and feelings of helplessness for the families, carers and friends.

The World Health Organization Step Safely publication reviewed evidence for falls prevention across the life cycle and recommended a range of interventions for falls among the older aged population, including multifactorial falls prevention programmes. This toolkit presents an evidence based multifactorial falls prevention intervention called Action Falls which has been recommended by the UK NHS in their Enhanced Health in Care Homes Framework and the World Falls Guidelines.

Action Falls was developed by care home staff, residents, families, and researchers, and is suitable for anyone to use. It has been tested in the largest UK care home study to date and was shown to be effective at reducing falls rates by 43% without reducing liberty, mobility, or normal activities of daily living.

The Action Falls toolkit provides users with a systematic approach with information in an easy format introducing the training, expected benefits and gives access to various resources. It can be followed by care home staff, families, volunteers, and residents themselves, as part of the approach is to recognise that falls are everybody’s business and should not be hidden. It was written by the research team led by the University of Nottingham in the UK, using data provided from the study.

David Meddings Scientist World Health Organisation (WHO)

Creating a toolkit for Action Falls is an essential step in promoting the safety and wellbeing of elderly residents in care homes.

This toolkit provides guidance and resources for care home managers, commissioners, healthcare professionals and stakeholders to understand, prevent and manage falls effectively.

The toolkit is structured into the following sections:

• Using Action Falls
• Research Evidence
• Case studies and success stories
• Evidence for Commissioners, Care Home owners, Health and Social Care providers
• References
• Contact and Support

For more information visit the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration East Midlands website – https://arc-em.nihr.ac.uk/clahrcs-store/action-falls-toolkit