King's College London

Background

People who live in care homes are at great risk of falling. Falls are common, harmful, costly, and difficult to prevent. The Guide to Action for Falls Prevention Care Homes (GtACH) programme trains and supports care home staff to identify the reasons why residents fall and then guides them to complete actions to reduce falls. In a large multicentre randomised controlled trial called the FinCH trial (1), the GtACH programme was cost-effective and reduced falls by 43%. We now need to research how to deliver the GtACH programme in ‘real life’ outside a research trial.

Aim of this study

To develop and research ideas about taking up the GtACH training programme which can be used nationwide.

Timescale

1/10/2021 - 30/9/2023

Funding

This project is funded by the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Wessex.

Research team

Principle Investigator: Professor Pip Logan. Team members: Dr Jane Horne, Dr Fran Allen, Maureen Godfrey, Professor Adam Gordon, Professor John Gladman, Dr Katie Robinson, Dr Paul Leighton, Dr Janet Darby, Michael Fletcher, Professor Gillian Manthorpe, Professor Barbara Hanratty, Professor Dan Lasserson, Professor Elizabeth Orton, Dr Cat Forward.

Partners: Nottingham University Hospitals (NHS) Trust; Leicestershire County Council (Local Government); University of Newcastle, King's College London; NHS Bromley CCG; Northumbria-Healthcare NHS Trust.

Methods

We will work with three regions – East Midlands, South London and the North-East. Using an approach to talking to people in care homes called Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) we will consider the work that people do in managing falls to assess whether GtACH becomes routine practice. NPT will help us to think about those things which help and those which hinder the adoption of GtACH.