CHAFFINCH

CHAFFINCH: A novel model for falls management in care homes

Falls can have a significant impact on the lives of residents in care homes. They are frightening, can lead to serious injury, loss of ability and ultimately loss of life. However, falls and injuries can be reduced, if appropriate and timely actions are taken.

ACTiON FALLS is a falls management programme shown to reduce the impact of falls for care home residents. The ACTiON FALLS programme has been developed in collaboration with care home residents, staff, relatives and clinicians, led by Professor Pip Logan at the University of Nottingham.

Delivery of the ACTiON FALLS programme in a care home setting is challenging due to the complexity of individual residents’ needs, the care home environment and staff knowledge. More work is needed to explore how best to deliver the programme. There is an ongoing national implementation study led by Professor Pip Logan at the University of Nottingham and the CHAFFINCH study led by NUH.

 

About the project

Our NUH Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) are working with other health and care professionals to develop a new model to deliver best practice falls management in care homes in the UK.

 

What research are we doing?

A recognised and established method called the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research is being used to explore the delivery of falls management in care homes.

 

What is involved in this project?

There are three parts to this programme:

 

  • Exploring the issues of delivering falls management in care homes by observing care home practice in five care homes and interviewing care home staff and residents. (This part of the project has started and will complete in December 2022)

 

  • Co-producing a model for implementing the ACTiON FALLS programme with care homes.  This will be done by working collaboratively as equal partners with care home staff, residents, family members and health and social care representatives from across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care System (ICS) in a series of structured workshops. (This work is planned to start in January 2023 and complete by the end of the year)

 

  • Trying out the delivery using the new model in 10 case study care homes to assess whether there is a change in care home practice and improvement in falls related outcomes. (Planned to start January 2024, and to be completed by the end of that year)

 

The benefit for care home residents

We anticipate our model to deliver best practice in falls management will improve residents’ quality of life, reduce the number of falls and injuries, and reduce hospital admissions. We aim to ensure that residents, families, and care staff are central to the delivery of the model and decision-making.

 

For more information

This research is funded by the NIHR through an Advanced Fellowship held by Dr Katie Robinson, Associate Chief AHP for Research & Innovation at NUH and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham.

The research team also includes Frances Hallam, Clinical Researcher at NUH and PhD student at the University of Nottingham.