Download our fact sheet on Work Package 4.1 - University of Salford

Going Outdoors: Falls, Ageing & ResilienceWork Package 4.1 (WP4.1) – Knowledge exchangeThe Go Far team delivering Work Package 4.1 comprises:Mr Ricardo Codinhoto, University of SalfordProfessor James Goodwin, Age UKMs Rita Newton, University of SalfordExtract from the Case for Support“We will work with health and built environment professionals, international experts and olderpedestrians to obtain input and feedback on the pilot work to identify which kinds of falls might bepreventable by environmental interventions. F<strong>our</strong> workshops are planned, nested in national andinternational events already taking place. Outputs: examples of evaluated outdoor interventionsthat could be evaluated in future; identification of challenges in assessing outdoor interventions;critical commentary on the audit tool, and basis for evaluating economic implications of changingoutdoor environments to prevent falls”.The Challenge!Accessing and working with health professionals – key professionals would seem to be fallspractitioners providing falls services in a variety of contexts such as falls clinics, other – geriatricians?What existing access to practitioners do we have? Rita – North West falls practitioners (about 10members); Dawn – Greater Glasgow and Clyde Community (GC&C) Falls Prevention Programme?Others? Perhaps....1. Consult with them re hotspots, and access to participants2. Ask if some of them would like to participate in a virtual advisory group3. Presentation (or poster or workshop) at the British Geriatric Society Annual Conference on falls,August 2013 to focus on findingsAccessing and working with built environment (urban design) professionals – this group will needsome convincing that there is a problem to be solved. Perhaps build on <strong>our</strong> existing contacts withthe Chartered Institute of Highways and Transportation and Department for Transport.Accessing and working with older pedestrians – should include people who have fallen, those whohave a fear of falling, and those for whom falling is not a problem. Build on existing work done byAge UK (rather than re-inventing the wheel and doing it badly!) but need to catch up with JamesGoodwin to discuss this further. Starter for 10....• Age UK Falls Awareness Week 18-22 June 2012, theme of falls and bone health• Change One Thing Campaign (Age UK supporting groups of older people, their families etc. to runlocal campaigns to improve their neighb<strong>our</strong>hood)• Pride of Place Campaign (England Age UK is calling on local councillors to take a lead in bringingabout better neighb<strong>our</strong>hoods)Perhaps getting involved in these campaigns within the hotspot areas (rather than trying to coverthe whole of the UK in <strong>our</strong> pilot project).

Going Outdoors: Falls, Ageing & ResilienceThe Challenge (continued...)Accessing and working with international experts – perhaps need to also add UK experts, and acrossa broad range of disciplines. The challenge here is working with rather than just disseminating to,and timing this within the project. Perhaps a targeted and small group of international expertsbrought together as a virtual group.Workshops – Initial Thoughts1. Joint workshop with Living Streets at Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference, Edinburgh,3-5 July 2012.2. Joint Workshop with Age UK at British Society of Gerontology Annual Conference, Keele, 11-13July 2012 or possibly 2013 focussing on findings; ditto Age UK Annual Conference ‘Agenda forLater Life’ held in March in London.3. Joint Workshop with Greater Glasgow and Clyde Community (GC&C) Falls Prevention Programmeat World Congress on Active Ageing, Glasgow, 13-17 August 2012.4. Joint workshop with Living Streets or Pedestrian Association and the Chartered Institute ofHighways and Transportation, and Department for Transport, perhaps at Annual Conference,Traffex, or similar.Other aspects of Knowledge Transfer (recognising that there is limited budget)Trevor Cox suggestion of providing a poor pavement reporting service“Last month my father in law fell again in Sheffield city centre and broke his hip. (so-so prognosis). Ashop owner who helped in the aftermath commented that several people had fallen at the samepoint in recent weeks. This distressing incident got me thinking about a possible public engagementactivity about falls.Have any of you come across the pot-hole reporting site run by the Cycle T<strong>our</strong>ing Club (CTC)? You goon-line http://www.fillthathole.org.uk/ (or there is an app) and provide details of the pot-hole.These are then forwarded to the local authority who then repair it (usually quite efficiently becauseotherwise they risk being sued if there is an accident caused by the pot hole).I wondered if there was a similar mass-participation activity around pedestrian and falls wherepeople report trip hazards? Draw up a map of trip hazards and find out the most common problems,the worst and best cities etc. This would be a way of raising awareness of fall prevention among thegeneral public.Maybe there is some useful results you could take from the data (the most common trip hazards,what most worries people etc.)? You have probably seen similar public surveys in the news (RSPBand garden birds is the most famous). One academic use for the data is longitudinal studies, are <strong>our</strong>cities getting better or worse? I have no idea about funders (Pedestrian Association?), but Iwondered if you thought this is an idea worth further discussion?”

Going Outdoors: Falls, Ageing & ResilienceOutputsExecutive Summary (similar to SPARC Exec Summaries) which will incorporate: A road map for taking forward the research A validated environmental falls instrument for use in future studies A consensus paper on the core assessments and outcomes for falls and outdoor environmentresearch (similar to Lamb 2005).We will use the expertise in professional communications and policy development from I’DGO andKT-EQUAL to maximise impact of the findings – this includes work with ministers, parliamentariansand civil servants, local authorities, professional organisations and end users.ReferencesLamb, SE et al (2005) Development of a common outcome dataset for fall injury prevention trials: The ProFANE Consensus.J Am Ger Soc. 53(9), 1618-1622.