Falls Awareness Week 2025 – putting prevention into practice
Trust teams have been celebrating Falls Awareness Week 2025 by offering falls prevention and education to keep service users safe.
The week, marked from 15 – 19 September 2025, highlights that falls are not an inevitable part of ageing, and that many falls can be prevented through awareness and proactive measures.
Staff at Cheswold Park Hospital in Doncaster ran an event which included discussions about what causes falls and what people can do to reduce the risk.
Service users were invited to take part in interactive activities, such as rating footwear in order of safest to highest falls risk and identifying falls risks from pictures and discussions.
Service users also had the opportunity to complete physical health checks on staff. This promoted discussion and education about why physical health checks are so important.
There was even a falls-related escape room, which included someone standing on a chair, trailing wires, uneven mobility aids and untidy floors. Service users successfully identified the risks which supported their understanding of safe environments and the importance of keeping their rooms tidy.
A game of picture bingo enabled more education about falls and why self-care is important to reduce falls. Everything from foot health to teeth was open to discussion, helping service users to learn more about staying safe and well.
Service users were very positive about the event, commenting:
“We all need to look after ourselves to reduce falls”
“It was a fun way to learn new things”
“Everyone should learn this to stay safe”
“I’m going to start wearing proper shoes”
Over in Barnsley, local NHS services including our Trust, council services, partners and local voluntary organisations joined together to host an event in Barnsley Glassworks Market. This brought the awareness campaign straight to the heart of Barnsley.
Speaking about the event, Hannah Robertson, physiotherapist advanced clinical practitioner with the neighbourhood rehabilitation service, said: “The event helped promote the services and interventions that can help older people to reduce their risk of falls and challenge the common perception that falling is an inevitable part of ageing. Even minor falls can have a significant impact on people’s lives, with the fear of falling resulting in loss of confidence to carry out daily tasks such as going outdoors, shopping or even moving around in their own homes.
“The falls awareness event aimed to show ways of preventing falls and subsequent injury. The beauty of this event was the integrated way in which the services interacted with each other and the signposting that occurred so organically between them. Falls really is a team effort!”
Over 500 conversations were recorded between all the services, leading to direct referrals, signposting and valuable advice being shared.
Here’s how they helped…
- District nurses – took lots of high blood pressure readings, including advising one person to go directly to their GP for an urgent assessment. They also took a direct referral from a family member concerned about their parent
- Continence and urology team – gave out 100 self-referral leaflets
- Neighbourhood rehabilitation physiotherapy – issued 8 sticks and around 30 new ferrules (the rubber end of sticks).
- Community dietetics team – tested people’s grip strength and offered myth busting and facts on vitamin D supplements
- Equipment and adaptations team – gave advice and support around rehousing and equipment
- Podiatry – carried out lots of foot examinations and advised people about self-referral
- Plus advice and support from musculoskeletal physiotherapy outpatients, neighbourhood rehabilitation occupational therapy, neurological physiotherapy outpatients and more
