Implementing Action Falls for Domiciliary Care

Every year, a lot of older people fall. These falls often lead to serious injuries and are a common reason for moving into care homes, increasing the amount of paid support at home or needing to rely more on family, friends and neighbours for informal support. Falling can make people lose confidence in their abilities to do different activities, leading to loneliness and physical weakness, increasing the risk of more falls. It's important to identify why someone might fall and put things in place to try and reduce these risks. This needs to be done whilst also supporting people to be confident and continue to do the things they enjoy doing. Action Falls is an intervention that aims to find out why someone might fall and suggests ways to help, like checking their medication and encouraging them to stay active. It was first created to try and prevent falls in care homes. We have now adapted the intervention for older people living in their own homes that are supporting by home care services. We now need to try out the adapted intervention to see what people think about it and explore whether it can help manage falls and independence. The Action Falls for home care intervention includes: * Training for home care and reablement staff * Information and resources to help identify potential risks and suggest potential actions * Information for older people and families to consider potential falls risks and actions In order to evaluate the Action Falls for home care we are undertaking a study over 2 years where the intervention will be delivered across home care organisations in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. We are asking home care staff and older people to take part in different parts of the research to explore the different views on how well the intervention has been delivered and whether it has improved confidence in managing falls and promoted independence and activity for older people.

Inclusion Criteria: * Domiciliary care or Social Care service: * Registered to provide Social Care or domiciliary care in Nottinghamshire or Lincolnshire for older people aged 65 or over * 10 or more potentially eligible older people * Consent of the manager/owner to comply with the protocol Older people receiving domiciliary care support * Older people aged 65 or over receiving on-going domiciliary care support * Able to provide informed consent Staff * Employed within the Social Care service in Nottinghamshire or Lincolnshire participating in the study * Employed by a domiciliary care service participating in the study * 18 years of age or over Exclusion Criteria: * Domiciliary care service: * Services exclusively providing care for people aged under 65, those with learning difficulties or substance dependency * Services with contracts under suspension with social care providers or that are currently subject to safeguarding measures under CQC special measures at the time of recruitment Older people receiving domiciliary care support * Lack capacity to provide informed consent for the research * In receipt of end-of-life care * Taking part in the FISS trial Staff: * Employed by a domiciliary care or Social Care service that is not participating in the study * Under 18 years of age