Outcome of the falls prevention expression of interest

Country SA PHN Newsletter March 2025

In November 2024, Country SA PHN sent an Expression of Interest (EOI) to general practices, aged care and community services providers in the Yorke Peninsula and Fleurieu Peninsula regions, seeking responses for short term capacity building or quality improvement projects of up to $80,000 (excl GST) targeting falls prevention in high risk groups of older people.

This EOI activity aligns with needs assessment priorities by supporting the aged care workforce with skill and knowledge opportunities, providing accessible early intervention services to reduce frailty and deterioration, and offering appropriate support to help older people maintain an active role in their health to stay independent and well at home.

Three projects were successful:

• Pharmaceutical Society of Australia - Pharmacists Preventing Falls: Enhancing Medication Safety for Older Australians with Dementia Project. The proposed project involves delivering after-hours professional development sessions for pharmacists in the Yorke Peninsula and Fleurieu Peninsula regions. The topic of the sessions is optimising medicines to prevent falls in older people, with a focus on people with dementia.

• Kangaroo Island Medical - General Practice Quality Improvement. Kangaroo Island Medical's general practice quality improvement initiative involves identifying patients at risk of falls through PenCAT data extraction, recalling eligible patients for health assessments or chronic disease care plan appointments, embedding a validated falls risk assessment tool into usual health assessment templates (such as chronic disease care plans or 75-year health assessments), providing patient education on fall prevention, and referring high-risk patients to the local multidisciplinary team (including physiotherapists and occupational therapists).

• Resthaven Port Elliot - Create a gymnasium for physiotherapist/occupational therapist led strength and balance program and Introduction of Safe Steps program. The proposed project aims to prevent falls at Resthaven aged care home in Port Elliot through two components. The first involves a strength and balance exercise pilot program, including purchasing gym equipment and training a therapy assistant to support the physiotherapist. Resthaven will fund the assistant role long-term if the pilot is successful. The second component is a Safe Steps quality improvement initiative, which educates staff on falls prevention, assesses residents' fall risk, and integrates visual charts in residents' rooms and on walkers to remind staff of mobility needs.

Published on: March 17, 2025