Falls Prevention
Falls rates in Greater Manchester are higher than they are for the rest of the country – six out of ten local authorities in Greater Manchester have a higher number of emergency hospital admissions per 100,000 due to falls in people aged 65 and over than the average across England. A fall in mid to later life can have a major impact on a person’s ability to live life and age well. They are also a crucial indicator of potential poor health in mid to later life for which early preventative intervention can support individuals to age well.
The vision of the Greater Manchester Age-friendly Strategy is that, by 2034, the number of falls has significantly reduced due to earlier risk detection, and people who have experienced a fall are better supported to recover and minimise their risk of falling again.
Our Work:
- In January 2022, the Greater Manchester Falls Collaborative was launched to oversee and deliver the strategic and operational system-level priorities and recommendations for falls prevention, integration, and reconditioning. The Collaborative welcomes anyone who is working in falls, has an interest in falls prevention, or has lived experience of falls. The Falls Collaborative sessions are recorded and can be accessed below:
- The GM Ageing Well Programme has secured grant funding of a total of £100,000 from OHID and Centre for Ageing Better, to design and deliver a project that tests system innovation in the Case-Finding for Falls Prevention. We are working with the South Wigan Ashton North (SWAN) Primary Care Network (PCN) in Wigan, and we intend to use the data to identify individuals who are at an intermediate risk (10-25%) of a fall within the next 12 months. We are using the eFalls Tool (embedded in Version 2 of eFI), and we are looking to signpost to an evidence-based intervention to reduce their risk and improve their overall health and wellbeing. Our ambition is to create the case for this model of working, to look to embed this across all PCN’s in GM.
- Each year, we celebrate and promote Falls Prevention Awareness Week:
- In 2023, we developed the Online Lunchtime Bitesize Learning Sessions (external link) to raise awareness and share learning around falls and falls prevention.
- In 2024, we developed a social media toolkit (external link) for organisations to use to share objectives for the week and key messages, along with suggested social media content and video titles.
- Alongside the social media toolkit, we worked with colleagues from GMCA and NHS Comms teams to produce a series of informative videos (external link) from a range of professionals who work with older adults who experience, or are at risk of, falls.
If you would like to get involved in any of this work, or know a colleague who would find this useful, please contact bethany.mitchell@greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk.