FIPC Research: Area Falls Safety Officer Project - Queensland Stay On Your Feet®

This project aimed to trial a Queensland Health workforce enhancement strategy to support and coordinate implementation of evidence-based falls prevention at an Area Health Service level across the health continuum. This workforce strategy involved trialling the appointment of six Falls Safety Officers (FSO) between February 2008 and January 2009 - one hospital and one community officer for Queenland Health's Central, Southern and Northern Area Health Services.

Outcomes of this project included:

• raising the profile of falls and falls prevention activities for older people
• reinforcing the importance of a cross-continuum approach
• widely disseminating falls prevention information across Queensland's community, hospital and residential care sectors
• establishing and re-energising falls prevention working groups, and creating governance structures
• development of falls prevention action plans
• valuable information regarding the successful implementation of large scale health promotion activities.

More information

• Area Falls Safety Officer Project - Full Report
• "Evaluation of a health service delivery intervention to promote falls prevention in older people across the care continuum"