Falls Awareness Week 2022

Falls Awareness Week runs from the 19^th – 25^th September and is a national campaign to increase awareness around falls, injury prevention and shares information on what we can do to keep our patients safe from slips, trips and minor falls.

A fall can cause someone to go through a range of devastating and distressing emotions. Often painful, falls can cause injury, loss of confidence, loss of independence and even death.

St Oswald’s Hospice have a Falls Prevention and Management Team, which was borne just over four years ago, to make sure that we provide the safest and most effective environment for people in our care.

Clare Young, Physio and Group Lead tells us more:

“The Falls Group is a multi-disciplinary group with members from all areas of the Hospice, including the Children and Young Adults Service, Focus on Living and Learning and Development.  We meet regularly to review how the hospice is doing in terms of reducing both the number of falls and what is being done to prevent them.

“I’m pleased to say that all aspects of falls management has improved across the Hospice since the group was established. Our last audit shows a continued reduction in the number of falls and injuries sustained since 2021 with approximately 30% less falls, which is a testament to the hard work of all the staff involved and is evidence of effective multi-disciplinary team working.”

To find out more about the group you can contact Clare at clareyoung@stoswaldsuk.org

Members of the group include, Clare Young, Allison Wood (minutes), Leigh Marrs, Diane Nicholson, Jill Lisle, Andrew Hughes, Nikki Walton, Amelia Davies, Jackie Haskey, Amanda McCleery, Tracey Orange Moore and Christine Allen.