We hope you will get involved with an exciting opportunity to be a part of a research programme, funded by the Medical Research Council, led by Manchester University. The research focuses on the delivery of FaME and which characteristics of programmes achieve maximum levels of sustained activity in older adults. The study is purely recruiting…
Age and Ageing, the UK’s most prominent research journal for those working with older people, has just reached its 40th Anniversary. It has published a review of all its papers and editors over the last 40 years, including lists of its Top Ten Cited Papers in different decades and of all time. We are pleased…
Stability classes help to reduce the risk of falls “I would say that since beginning the class, my balance has improved, my confidence has improved and I haven’t had a fall in twelve months. I’m also managing the duties of everyday life.” The Wrexham Strength and Balance Classes are held every week and provide training…
Aberystwyth University and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board in 2012 published an evaluation of the “Functional and Psychological Changes During a Community Based 32 Week Postural Stability Training Programme: Recommendations for Future Practice” report. The Main Fi ndings of the report were: The data strongly support the programme’s impact on patients’ functional ability, with clear improvements…
Last week the Royal College of Physicians published a new audit on exercise provision in falls services across the UK. Some of the findings were, unfortunately, not unexpected! This survey was commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) and carried out by the Royal College of Physicians’ Clinical Effectiveness and Evaluation Unit (CEEU). It…
A systematic review of the evidence behind implementation studies on falls prevention, by Victoria Goodwin (one of our PSI tutors) and colleagues, has shown that Interventions that involved the active training of healthcare professionals improved implementation. The evidence around changing the way people who fall are managed within primary care practices, and, layperson, peer or…
In 2008, Sherrington et al published a systematic review of published exercise programmes to prevent falls. In a nutshell, they found that successful intervention had to have 3 things in place: a dose of over 50 hours highly challenging balance training (narrowing base of support, reducing holding support, dynamic as well as static balance training…
The Chartered Society of Physiotherapists has launched a call to action to physiotherapists – Respond to the first fracture; prevent the second. One of LLT’s Directors, Dr Dawn Skelton, contributed to the document. The document provides really useful up to date costs of fractures and falls in the UK and a case study. Click here…
The CDC (USA) have produced a compendium of effective falls interventions that is freely downloadable. This compendium covers exercise based interventions, home modification interventions and multifaceted interventions and collated information from the original research authors. This resource is a MUST HAVE for all those working in falls prevention services as it gives extremely useful information…
In 2009, the Department of Health published its prevention package. The suite of downloadable prevention package resources below is designed to support PCTs, SHAs and Local Authorities in prioritising and effectively commissioning services that support the health, well-being and independence of older people. Each resource may be read as a stand-alone document or as part…
