Review of Integrated Care: Focus on Falls

This review is new approach for national reviews for HIW. We investigated and reviewed a complete pathway of care – reflecting the complex, integrated systems of care characteristic of modern healthcare.

The review highlights fifteen themes of importance for staff working with older people who are at risk of suffering a fall, and for health and social care managers.

The review also makes eight recommendations for the Welsh Government, health boards and local authorities

We conducted fieldwork in three health board areas and looked along the pathway of care from prevention of falls to reablement following the event, and how the identified themes relate to the promotion of good quality, seamless care.

The recommendations we have made will help steer integrated care in general, and specifically in the case of falls in older people.

Within the review HIW sets out examples of aspirational and dysfunctional pathways, based on evidence in the report. HIW has produced a set of animated videos to better explain the individuals’ experience of the falls pathway to accompany the review.

The animations take the viewer step-by-step through the pathway and are aimed at helping both healthcare professionals and the public to understand what an ideal falls pathway could look like.

There are five animated videos covering:

1. The prevention of harm from falls and the promotion of independence for people living in their own home
2. The prevention of harm from falls and the promotion of independence for people living in care homes
3. The response to a fall for someone living in their own home
4. The response to a fall for someone living in a care home
5. Following attendance at hospital due to a fall

They are available in Welsh and English on our YouTube channel.