Falls (health and wellbeing needs in South Tyneside)
Unmet needs in Care homes
- Seating and equipment: Most care homes purchase seating to be generic and may not be suitable for specific individuals. Specialised seating is high cost and if this can be adapted is the burden of the home to purchase. If its specific to a person it can be funded by health, but these tend to be for residents with complex needs. Such equipment is not readily available and once funding agreed need to be made. During that time, a person may be at risk of falls.
- Activities and knowledge around specific exercise techniques: Homes do have activity co-ordinators who will carry out group and individual activities, but this is only with agreement of residents some residents decline activities and others lack capacity to take part meaningfully. There seems to be lack of knowledge around specific exercise techniques for mobile, immobile, and nursed in bed residents.
- Staffing Constraints: During Covid there have been a number of staff leave health and care industries nationally due to the proposed mandatory requirement of vaccinations (despite now being revoked), effect of Covid in the home and on family or self. Recruitment has been slow and care homes have found it hard to meet staffing requirements either with own staff or agency use. [30] [31]
- Identification of injuries (fracture and head): There may to be a lack of knowledge around identification of serious falls injuries. There is a need to ensure care home staff can identify potential head or fracture injuries early in order to reduce / prevent hospital stays and / or further treatment.
- Increase in complexities of need: There has been an increase in both the need for care home beds with 93% of actual beds available being full. This is a rise on the norm of 75 - 85%. Residents may have more complex needs in long term placements and there is a need to investigate system behaviours, approaches to managing risk and wider provision in the community. Staff may not be familiar with temporary settings or residents becoming more able and stronger during their stays and the inherent risks of them relearning mobility skills and this may lead to an increase in falls in homes.
- Complexities in behaviours of residents has led to increase in use of medication to reduce behaviours that will increase potential falls.
- Due to staffing constraints in Falls Team there are long wait times and some residents are having multiple falls before being seen.
