Falls in the elderly are the main cause of hospital admission and injuries sustained often lead to loss of independence and mobility and can have psychological effects.

Over the past six months we have been in collaboration with Brighton University who have researched and undergone extensive training into a falls prevention program. It has now been approved by the ethics committee and all necessary assessments completed.

They are now about to begin the pilot study with a group of our service users! They will come into the home twice a week to provide the exercise program and assessments etc, for 10 weeks.

We hope the results will show the benefits of exercise in the prevention of falls, rather than the treatment of injury.

We are very pleased to have been chosen to take part and hope this research programme may be extended further in the future.

I am sure lots of you watched the TV programme, ‘Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds’ recently shown on Channel 4.

We have also seen the benefits when staff or visitors bring in their children, and how much interaction and enjoyment is gained. Examples are a game of word memory where the child remembered the word and the lady wrote it for her! Neither could have played on their own, so the benefit of the share time together was mutual. Another lady who is usually very solitary sat and read a story to a little girl.

We are at present talking to a local nursery who would like to visit the home, so we hope in the near future this will be a regular event.

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog. Visitors to the home are welcome at any time, and please don’t forget to come along to one of our events!