Falls in older people: Guidance consultation now open

This draft guideline and its supporting evidence are now out for consultation. It is a valuable opportunity to ensure that the guideline considers issues important to your stakeholders. The consultation page has all the information and documents you need to comment. The consultation will close at 5pm on Thursday 28^th November.

This guideline covers assessment of fall risk and interventions to prevent falls in people aged 65 and over. It aims to reduce the risk and incidence of falls and the associated distress, pain, injury, loss of confidence, loss of independence and mortality.

Recommendations

This guideline includes recommendations on:

• multifactorial risk assessment of older people who present for medical attention because of a fall, or report recurrent falls in the past year
• multifactorial interventions to prevent falls in older people who live in the community
• multifactorial risk assessment of older peoples’ risk of falling during a hospital stay
• multifactorial interventions to prevent falls in inpatients at risk of falling

Who is it for?

• Healthcare and other professionals and staff who care for older people who are at risk of falling
• People aged 65 or older who fall or are at risk of falling in the community, and their families and carers
• All hospital inpatients aged 65 or older
• Hospital inpatients aged 50 to 64 who have been identified as being at higher risk of falling