Falkirk Falls Management project wins Gold Excellence Award
Published 09th March 2009
The Falkirk Falls Management Project commenced in 2002 as a joint initiative between the Falkirk Mobile Emergency Care Service and Forth Valley NHS to reduce the number of falls being experienced by the MECS service users in their own homes.
All people referred to the alarm service are given booklets with information and advice aimed at reducing the number of falls people have in their own homes.
Their falls are monitored through Chubb’s Saturn system and 2 falls within a 6 month period triggers an offer of direct referral for a multifactorial assessment of the reasons for the falls from colleagues in Forth Valley NHS.
All GPs agreed to them being bypassed in this process to speed up referral times and GPs receive a notification of the falls their patients are having and a note of whether they have accepted referral for assessment.
A falls risk assessment tool is used in this process and those most at risk of further falls are issued with automatic falls detectors from Chubb.
MECS wardens have all been trained in first aid and issued with a range of moving and handling equipment to effect safe movement of non injured fallers.
In the time this project has been in operation the rate of falls experienced by these 6000 ,mainly older people has been reduced by around a third and many thousands of falls have been prevented.
The work of the Falkirk Falls Management project was recognised in the COSLA Excellence Awards ceremony on March 5th 2009 in St Andrews where it won the Gold Excellence Award in the category for Advancing Community and Citizen Wellbeing.
This Award was one of only nine such Gold Awards presented in a range of categories on the night as the culmination of the judging of over 180 entries from all over Scotland.
For more information contact Linda Macpherson, Team Manager, MECS and Telecare Development, Falkirk or Billy Graham Chubb Regional Sales Manager.
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