This report is a refresh of Worcestershire County Councils’ Fall Prevention Need Assessment of 2018. It is focused on epidemiological aspects and emphases why exercise is so critical to any falls or frailty prevention strategy.
The key takeaways from this report are:
- The incidence of falls has increased as a direct consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Worcestershire has a higher incidence of falls than the national average and that, as yet, cannot be explained.
- Exercise is core to the prevention of falls, loss of independence and frailty.
- Exercise should be viewed as both a population health and a clinical intervention depending on the situation. As a clinical intervention it is critical to reconditioning individuals.
- Less than 50% of the adult population is engaging in sufficient strength based exercise to maintain muscle mass loss to healthy levels.
- Given these participation levels and the current projections for the ageing population and prevalence of frailty, greater priority should be given to exercise and reconditioning programmes.
- Both cardiopulmonary exercise and strength should be routinely measured or considered in the course of clinical care pathways, particularly for those patients who have chronic illnesses or been subjected to major illness and injury.
- We need to be more ambitious in terms of our expectation of how fit and strong individuals, particularly the elderly, and patients should be.
It can be found at this link:
2024 Falls Prevention Needs Assessment
It can also be found by going to this webpage:
Adults and Vulnerable Adults JSNA Publications | Worcestershire County Council
You may also wish to access the Health and Wellbeing home page for news, reports, data and community stories celebrating a healthy Worcestershire: https://insights.worcestershire.gov.uk/
About the JSNA
Local authorities and local health services are required to prepare Joint Strategic Needs Assessments (JSNAs). JSNAs are assessments of the current and future health and social care needs of the local community. The expectation is that Clinical Commissioning Groups, NHS England and Local Authority plans for commissioning services are informed by the JSNA.
Further Information and feedback
For comments, questions and alternative formats please contact:
Cameron Russell
Tel: 01905 846957