It is a care home’s responsibility to reduce their residents’ risk of falls, as part of the care and support they provide.
Please complete all sections and action the toolkit recommendations as applicable before considering a referral to the Falls Management Service.
- This toolkit should be reviewed with other care plans as the resident’s needs change.
- Copies of the care plan or falls log should be updated in conjunction with the Falls Prevention Toolkit.
The Falls Management Service have developed this toolkit to enable care home staff to identify common falls risk factors, and to provide suggestions on how to manage these risk factors.
The toolkit will allow a person-centered approach for each individual resident. Every member of staff has a crucial role in identifying and managing falls risks.
This toolkit aims to:
- assist staff to identify an individual’s falls risks and ensure that appropriate actions are taken
- educate staff and promote awareness of the wide variety of risks that contribute to falls, so that they can minimise risks where possible within the Care Home setting
- ensure the suggested actions are completed, and are regularly reviewed to ensure the identified measures remain appropriate
Falls prevention is a continual process, and a resident’s risk of falls needs reviewing regularly as their needs change. The Falls Prevention Toolkit should be used in conjunction with the Care Home’s care plans, policies & procedures, and incident or accident reporting protocols.
Most falls occur due to a combination of risk factors. Residents in care homes are likely to have more falls risk factors than people living within the community. However, not all falls risk factors can be removed, such as long-term conditions (E.g. Stroke, Parkinson’s Disease, Dementia). Reducing the number of manageable falls risk factors identified (E.g. poor footwear, poor vision) will reduce the number of falls an individual is likely to have.
For residents with severe cognitive dysfunction, multi-factorial falls interventions may not be appropriate, and increased supervision or monitoring of the resident is likely to be the main intervention.
However, those residents who, despite implementation of the toolkit, continue to have unexplained falls, can be referred to the Falls Management Service for further advice and support.
NB: Evidence of use of the Falls Management Toolkit will be required before the Falls Management Service will review.
Guidance
- The suggested actions are not an exhaustive list – there may be alternatives that could be considered by care staff
- This Falls Prevention Toolkit should be used in conjunction with the Care Home’s care plans, policies and procedures, and incident or accident reporting protocols
