Last week the Royal College of Physicians published a new audit on exercise provision in falls services across the UK. Some of the findings were, unfortunately, not unexpected! This survey was commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) and carried out by the Royal College of Physicians’ Clinical Effectiveness and Evaluation Unit (CEEU). It…
A systematic review of the evidence behind implementation studies on falls prevention, by Victoria Goodwin (one of our PSI tutors) and colleagues, has shown that Interventions that involved the active training of healthcare professionals improved implementation. The evidence around changing the way people who fall are managed within primary care practices, and, layperson, peer or…
In 2008, Sherrington et al published a systematic review of published exercise programmes to prevent falls. In a nutshell, they found that successful intervention had to have 3 things in place: a dose of over 50 hours highly challenging balance training (narrowing base of support, reducing holding support, dynamic as well as static balance training…
Start Active_Stay Active was launched today (11/07/11) by the four home counties’ Chief Medical Officers. The document updates the existing guidelines for children, young people and adults but for the first time, includes guidance on physical activity in the early years and older adults. For all age groups, this guidance highlights the risks of Sedentary…
The Chartered Society of Physiotherapists has launched a call to action to physiotherapists – Respond to the first fracture; prevent the second. One of LLT’s Directors, Dr Dawn Skelton, contributed to the document. The document provides really useful up to date costs of fractures and falls in the UK and a case study. Click here…
Today we launched INSPIRE. Later Life Training qualified instructors, leaders and those who work closely with us have been asking for updates on a whole variety of things. We have a mix of updates on each of our courses, highlights from research (with our courses), highlights from practice (model services), upcoming events, thought provoking questions…
This months Stroke Matters (May 2011) has an excellent article by Dr Gillian Mead, one of the key researchers behind the evidence base for exercise and fitness training after stroke and one of the key developers of the Exercise and Fitness training after Stroke (EfS) course now run by LLT. The article starts with how…
The CDC (USA) have produced a compendium of effective falls interventions that is freely downloadable. This compendium covers exercise based interventions, home modification interventions and multifaceted interventions and collated information from the original research authors. This resource is a MUST HAVE for all those working in falls prevention services as it gives extremely useful information…
Dawn has two PhD students working with her at Glasgow Caledonian University, looking at developing games for health that can be ‘played’ by older people on a computer at home. One is considering the best interface for physiotherapists to be able to monitor and progress the exercise by receiving information on the games useage and…
Bob Laventure is joining forces with the University of Bath in a pilot project, funded by the MRC, looking at the effect of volunteer peer mentors in engaging and supporting older people to be more active. The project will also consider the views and outcomes for the peer activity motivators themselves.
