Adapting the Action Falls Program to Help Older Adults Avoid Falls at Home Focusing on Rural and Coastal Communities with Home Care Support

What this Trial Is About

This research focuses on adapting and implementing the Action Falls programme, originally designed to prevent falls in care home residents, for older adults receiving domiciliary home care. The programme aims to identify reasons for falls and suggest preventive actions such as medication reviews and encouraging physical activity. The study particularly targets older people supported by home care services in rural and coastal areas of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. The project involves observing home care visits and interviewing older adults, their relatives, care workers, and decision makers to understand how to adjust the programme materials and delivery for home settings. This includes co-design workshops to tailor training, manuals, and checklists to better suit domiciliary care needs. The adapted programme will then be prepared for future evaluation of its effectiveness in preventing falls within home care contexts. Participants will be observed and interviewed to inform the adaptation process, with data collected on programme changes using an implementation research framework over 18 months. The study will monitor how the programme is shaped for home care delivery, involving various stakeholders such as older adults, their families, care workers, and social care leaders. The total study period runs from July 2026 to June 2028, with future studies planned to evaluate the adapted programmes impact.

Action Falls for Domiciliary Care