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Managing falls and fractures in care homes for older people – good practice resource.
By Edith Macintosh AHP Consultant Care Inspectorate
Where have the last 5 years gone since the first edition of the falls resource pack was launched in 2011 for care homes for older people in Scotland, almost 1000 of them at that time? Many care homes had been waiting for their questions about falls prevention and management to be answered and to get some help and support so this really hit the spot.
An early evaluation was carried out which told us that care homes had found the resource pack really useful and if implemented with the support of the wider health and social care team falls could be reduced and the quality of life for older people improved.
Since then the Scottish Government funded a project called ‘Up and About in Care Homes’. The project involved 35 care homes across Scotland. The project team supported the care homes to implement the resource pack using tried and tested improvement methods. Care homes learnt a lot about falls prevention and management, reduced the number of falls and were able to manage falls in a more proactive way. The good practice was shared and challenges were overcome together.
The time then came to review the 2011 edition of the falls resource pack and here’s what we’ve done……
- The self assessment is still the starting point when using the resource pack but there are a few additional ‘good practice statements’ in line with the updated good practice.
- Three new sections have been added, Guidance for improving the quality of care, Keeping well and Working together.
- In Section 5, learning from falls has been emphasised.
- Care home stories have been added throughout the resource pack to give examples of good practice and new ways of working. Many of these have come from the ‘Up and About in Care Homes’ project.
Lastly, some tools in the toolkit have been revised and updated and new tools added such as; specific information leaflets, a falls data spreadsheet to gather and help care homes analyse information about falls in their care home (this is accessible on the internet along with instructions for its use) and a DVD education pack that goes with the falls awareness DVD that came out with the original pack in 2011.
A hard copy of the resource will go to all care homes for older people after it was launched on the 17 June. An electronic version of the resource is available on the Care Inspectorate website.
The resource aims to help care home staff to understand the importance of taking a proactive approach to preventing falls and to support older people to have a physically active life and live well.
If you are reading this and are keen to support care homes to make improvements get in touch with your local services I’m sure they will be pleased to hear from you!
If you want to know more get in touch with Edith Macintosh at edith.macintosh@careinspectorate.com
AHPs across health and social care. 
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