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Falls Prevention Service

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What the Falls Prevention Service is and offers

Research has shown that one in three people aged 65 or over is at risk of falling over, rising to one in two over the age of 80. People who have fallen or who are fearful of falling can feel restricted physically and socially. It is therefore important to recognise the risks early and get the right help at the right time.

Our goal at the Falls Prevention Service is to help you to identify why you might have fallen (or feel at risk of falling). This is accomplished by providing assessment and actions aimed at reducing those risk factors and improving your confidence. This aims to keep you doing the things you enjoy.

 

Locations of the service

If you are referred for a Falls Risk Assessment, a clinician will get in touch to discuss how, when and where will be most convenient to carry this out. It might be in your own home, in your local hospital, over the phone or virtually / online (using a video-call via the internet).

 

How you can see the service

There are any number and combinations of risk factors that may contribute to a fall or loss of confidence. We have designed a quick and easy assessment tool that aims to identify the main risk factors and help you to get timely input from the right services.

If you are aged over 65, we initially ask you two simple trigger questions:

  1. Have you fallen in the last 12 months?
     
  2. Are you worried about falling over?

If you answered “Yes” to either or both of these questions, you may benefit from completing our Falls Risk Assessment. To do so you will need to access the Falls Prevention Service, via either:

  • Completing the online self-referral form for our service, as linked below
     
  • Or you can ask your GP (General Practitioner) or Healthcare Provider to refer you to the Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB) Falls Prevention Service.

On the referral form, you will also see a list of “Exclusions”. Please note that if you feel any of these Exclusions apply to you and the circumstances of your falls, you should request advice regarding this from your GP before seeking a referral to the Falls Prevention Service. This is because there may be other medical causes that need ruling out first.

 

Link to Self-Referral Form:

Online Self-Referral Form for the PTHB Falls Prevention Service

 

If you answered “No” to the two initial trigger questions above, it is still important to be aware of the potential risks and to maintain good levels of strength and mobility. This will help you to stay as safe and active as possible.

We have included useful supporting information further down this page to help. This general advice might be more useful to you than the full Falls Risk Assessment if your falls are due to a more obvious cause, such as unsupportive or poorly fitting footwear, or tripping over loose rugs. If you make some simple changes, you may reduce your risk of falling over.

 

Referral criteria advice for Healthcare Professionals

If you are a Healthcare Professional wanting to refer an individual for assessment, you can use the online form linked on this page. Please note the exclusion criteria and please include any information regarding any communication difficulties the person may have.

 

 

 

What should you expect before and during appointments with the Falls Prevention Service?

A multidisciplinary team of Health, Social Care and voluntary workers will review your referral before contacting you to arrange the assessment. If the team feel you may need a different assessment first - for example, by your GP, we will contact you to advise. This does not mean you will not be suitable for this service in the future.

The Falls Risk Assessment may be carried out face-to-face, via the telephone or virtually / online (using a video-call via the internet). Please let us know of any communication difficulties when you fill in the self-referral form for the Falls Prevention Service, or make sure your GP / Healthcare provider lets us know when they make your referral.

During the assessment, the assessor will confirm your details and the circumstances of your fall(s). They will then use a digital App (or paper form) to ask some simple questions about your general health and environment. This is to try and identify any clear risks that may have led to you falling.

Once the assessment is complete, the clinician will go through the answers and decide which services within Health and Social Care might be helpful to try and reduce your risk of falling again and improve your confidence. If you are happy to proceed, the assessor will refer you on to these services or provide you with details of how to seek help yourself.

You will receive a summary of all of this, as well as a useful booklet of general advice.

 

What are the main risk factors causing falls?

People can fall for many reasons. Often when we are younger, the cause is easy to identify. Falls from height, or because of sporting or leisure activities are common reasons, or perhaps you tripped over the cat?!

However, when falls are less easy to explain, we need to consider that it is likely that many different risk factors are involved.

Some risk factors can be obvious, for example:

  • Decreasing strength and balance
  • Physical hazards such as rugs, steps or poor lighting

However, some risk factors may be less obvious. The following expandable sections detail several different risk factors for falls. Please click on the following sections to expand or collapse them:

 

Advice and support resources

The following expandable sections detail a number of different areas of advice, support and resources for self-management. Please click on the following sections to expand or collapse them:

 

 

 

Contact details for the Falls Prevention Service

For enquiries, please contact the Falls Prevention Service via email at:

Powys.Fallspreventionqueries@wales.nhs.uk

 

If your query requires urgent response, please contact either:

  • Your GP (General Practitioner)
  • Or telephone 111, for non-emergency medical assistance
  • Or telephone 999, for emergency medical assistance.

 

Meet the Team

Once we have looked at your referral, we aim to ask a Healthcare Professional who is already known to you, or involved with your care, to complete the assessment tool the next time they see you. This could be your District Nurse or Physiotherapist at home, or your Audiologist in clinic for example. If you are not currently known to any of our teams, we will decide who is best placed to complete the assessment with you and they will get in touch.

The Falls Prevention Service is overseen by Erin Hugo, Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist for Falls and Frailty. Erin has been a Community Physiotherapist for 12 years and has extensive experience working with individuals at risk of falls. Please contact us via email at Powys.Fallspreventionqueries@wales.nhs.uk if you have any queries about the assessment or referral process.

 

Patient feedback

We welcome any feedback you might have about your experience with the Falls Prevention Service at Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB).

You can access our feedback survey by clicking on the following link, or by scanning the associated QR code image below with a smartphone / other device if you wish to complete the survey via a different device (this will take you to the same webpage location as the link).

Results from the survey will help to shape PTHB’s approach to ensuring patients receive a holistic falls assessment, with the aim of reducing the risk of falling and keeping patients safe, healthy and confident.

 

Patient feedback survey link:

Patient Feedback – Powys Teaching Health Board Falls Prevention Service

 

Patient feedback survey QR code image:

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