Falls Prevention Network newsletter

Dr Nick Waldron, Clinical Lead

Our vision is for older people to remain independent with a good quality of life achieved by reducing the risk of falls and fall-related injuries.

We have established and maintained strong working relationships with non-government organisations and national partners in other states.

• Register your event for April No Falls Day 2012
• Excellence in Falls Prevention Awards 2012
• New Up Off The Floor Posters now Available
• Achievements in the Falls Prevention Network
• Stay On Your Feet WA®
• Falls Prevention Community of Practice
• Falls Specialist Coordinators
• Statewide Falls Risk Management Audit Tool

Register your event for April No Falls Day 2012

The Injury Control Council of WA (ICCWA), on behalf of the Department of Health WA, is coordinating April No Falls Day 2012, and will provide coordinator packs to events registered by Friday 17 February 2012.

April No Falls Day is a state-wide falls prevention initiative to increase awareness of falls prevention information and strategies specifically targeting acute care held as a part of the Stay On Your Feet WA® program.

We are encouraging all staff involved in health (including nursing, support, allied health and aged care workers) to register, plan and conduct an event to highlight the importance of falls prevention. Examples could include community displays, competitions, staff education, and various other fun and novel events. General Practice clinics are strongly encouraged to participate.

Events can take place between Sunday 1 and Saturday 7 April 2012. Register (external site) your event before 17 February to receive a coordinator pack, with all resource ordering closing 5pm Friday 24 February.

More information is available at www.iccwa.org.au/node/124 (external site) or phone (08) 9420 7212.

Excellence in Falls Prevention Awards 2012

Do you know a staff member, ward or facility that is leading the way towards falls prevention?

Nominate them for the excellence in falls prevention awards. Nominations need to document leadership, exceptional performance and/or service excellence in the area of falls prevention.

There will be one metropolitan and one regional winner.

Nominations close on Friday 20 April 2012.

New Up Off The Floor Posters now Available

Two new Up Off The Floor Posters have been added to the suite of resources available under the Stay On Your Feet WA® program. These posters have been a popular item and the magnetic strip across the top allow them to be positioned on the fridge for easy viewing. The forward lift method poster has been modified to be more culturally specific to the Aboriginal community.

A backwards lift method poster has also been designed for patients who are unable to get up off the floor via the forward lift method. This poster is available for download and printing via our website and cannot be ordered like the other Stay On Your Feet WA® resources.

The existing Up Off The Floor poster has also been recently updated.

Achievements in the Falls Prevention Network

In planning the Falls Prevention Summit earlier in the year, it was pleasing for Clinical Lead Dr Nick Waldron to reflect on the progress that has been made in this area over the past five years in our network.

“Especially encouraging have been the proven results of falls prevention interventions, such as with the SQuIRe program run by the Department of Health,” said Dr Waldron.

“In a hospital setting falls in 65 years and over age group decreased by 13 per cent, which is 957 falls prevented that year as the result of this intervention.

“This shows that a system-wide quality improvement program focusing on locally relevant, incremental improvement has been effective in reducing the number and rate of reported inpatient falls.”

Falls Prevention Model of Care

The Falls Prevention Model of Care for the Older Person in Western Australia (PDF 229KB) was released in April 2008.

Clinical Lead Dr Nick Waldron has been overseeing the implementation of this model of care in the primary, acute, sub-acute, community, residential, and country health care sectors.

This document has provided direction for a number of significant improvements in preventing and managing falls in Western Australia.

The document continues to be a valuable guiding tool to improving falls preventative care. It will need to be revised in coming years as many of the goals have now been achieved.

Stay On Your Feet WA®

The Stay On Your Feet WA® program has been strengthened over time.

Through promotional activities and a suite of new resources we have been able to raise awareness and educate people how they can reduce the incidence and burden of falls and falls-related injury.

The use of these resources continues to grow, and with the help of the Injury Control Council of Western Australia the program has run very successfully.

Falls Prevention Community of Practice

The Falls Prevention Community of Practice is another great development of our network from 2009.

It has representatives from the Injury Control Council of Western Australia (external site), our Falls Prevention Executive Advisory Group, all the Department of Health area health services, along with the Office of Safety and Quality in Health Care, and Health Networks.

The Falls Prevention Community of Practice is now part of a national research project being undertaken by the University of New South Wales that is investigating the impact of communities of practice in health care delivery.

The Falls Prevention Community of Practice has developed a Falls Risk Management Tool and a Falls Risk Management Audit Tool.

Falls Specialist Coordinators

As recommended by the Falls Prevention Model of Care for the Older Person in Western Australia (PDF 229KB) the role of Falls Specialist Coordinator has been created in our health workforce.

As identified in the model of care, the primary role of the Falls Specialist Coordinator is to integrate and communicate across sectors and deliver evidence based education and training.

The skills required by a Falls Specialist Coordinator include conducting detailed falls risk assessments and implementing interventions to reduce falls and injury from falls. They would be experienced in aged care and have an awareness of community and primary care services.

The Falls Specialist Coordinator and the associated training and recruitment of these professionals have been important additions to the health workforce.
The Department of Health is in varying stages of recruiting, appointing and employing Falls Specialist Coordinators at nine sites within the metropolitan area.

Statewide Falls Risk Management Audit Tool

The Falls Risk Management Tool is currently used in most hospitals across the state of Western Australia to assess and manage patients at risk of falling.

Our Falls Prevention Community of Practice has completed an audit tool to measure the use of the Falls Risk Management Tool, along with compliance with falls risk minimum standards.

The audit tool also aims to review the number of patients who have an appropriate strategy in place, the number of interventions provided, and opportunities to promote falls risk minimum standards that are not well implemented.

Auditing is an important part of the Plan-Do-Study-Act quality improvement cycle and the SQuIRe Clinical Practice Improvement Program.

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