Falls prevention focus for Whanganui District Health Board, St John and community agencies

Whanganui agencies are working collaboratively to help elderly people avoid falls.

St John recently announced that, after an upgrade to its electronic patient report form, ambulance staff throughout New Zealand are now able to refer patients who have fallen, or are at risk of falling, to local falls prevention services. St John responds to 34,000 falls incidents a year.

However, Alida Van Den Broek, a registered nurse who is part of the Whanganui District Health Board's Falls Prevention Team, said her team already had a close relationship with St John staff in Whanganui.

"St John has been referring to us for some time and will often ring us if they have concerns about a patient but now it's happening nationally with the electronic system," Van Den Broek said.

"Some St John referrals are because the person is at risk of having a fall because they are frail and alone. We hear about those who have ongoing problems and can feed back to St John where it's happening over and over again."

The Falls Prevention Team was formed in October 2017, under a contract from ACC. It has an occupational therapist and a physiotherapist and can refer people to other services.

Registered nurse Alida Van Den Broek is part of the Whanganui District Health Board's Falls Prevention Team.

"There are lots of reasons people fall - it can be medication, food, environmental," Van Den Broek said.

"Sometimes we get three or four referrals a week but we've recently had 24 referrals in one week. Referrals are speeding up because we give quite a holistic service."

The team does in-home visits, with initial visits over three weeks then monthly follow-ups, which may only require a phone call, for a year. As part of the service, they provide strength and balance exercises for people to do at home or refer them to community-based classes.

Age Concern Wanganui is one of the providers of community classes, running the Steady As You Go programme for over-65s in Whanganui, Bulls, Marton, Hunterville, Ohakune and Raetihi.

Manager Tracy Lynn said there are currently 20 classes, involving about 350 participants, across the region with two more classes due to start in the next few weeks.

"The class is really good for strength and balance," Lynn said.

"Their balance and confidence improves and there's also a real social connection and community connection. A lot of our classes make donations to other community organisations."

Steady As You Go class participants work on improving their balance.

The Steady As You Go classes are once a week for an hour. They include stretching, sitting and standing exercises, walking exercises and eye exercises to help peripheral vision.

GPs can refer patients to the Falls Prevention Team and Age Concern's Steady As You Go programme, or people can contact them directly on 348 3407 (Falls Prevention) or 345 1799 (Age Concern Wanganui).