Queensland Stay on Your Feet - Trial project implementation

The planning phase provided a strong foundation to address falls-related injury prevention through a range of evidence based, practical and innovative approaches.

Implementing the project

The Queensland Stay on Your Feet Wide Bay/Burnett Trial Project used a positive healthy active ageing approach. The aim was to partner with and engage the local community to encourage ownership of the project with a long-term view to sustaining the activities within the community’s resources. To foster the sustainability of this approach, the Queensland Stay on Your Feet Wide Bay/Burnett Trial Project operated without directly providing funding or local activities.

Guiding principles

The Queensland Stay on Your Feet Wide Bay/Burnett trial project was implemented according to the following set of guiding principles.

Principle  Explanation
Encourage local involvement and ownership
  • the most important thing for initiatives to work and to last
Be inclusive, accessible, simple and practical
  • any community or person that wants to be involved can be involved
  • Community Action Plans should be easy to follow

Start from what is already in place

Aim to enhance and extend the reach

Respond to local priorities
  • recognise existing local activities
  • develop local skills and resources as needed
  • start from what is seen as locally important

Be guided by research

Don't reinvent the wheel
  • encourage the sharing of ideas, programs and activities within the local community and from other areas

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Implementation approach

  • The trial project used a targeted evidence-based approach in addressing falls risk factors, primarily focused on a range of awareness and information activities and resources; and strategies for increased physical activity. 
  • Awareness and information activities used a multi-strategic approach to coordinate, distribute and promote resources; train and support voluntary ambassadors, and produce and distribute community newsletters. 
  • Increased physical activity among older people was encouraged using a multi-strategic approach to:
    - promote available opportunities (for example: local directories and come and try days in a range of locations)
    - develop and support new physical activity opportunities through local leader training and introducing activities such as Nordic Pole Walking, Life Ball, Tai Chi for Arthritis and gentle exercise.
  • A flexible approach allowed opportunistic responses to falls prevention issues and promotion of positive healthy active ageing. 
  • Where possible, falls prevention and positive healthy active ageing was integrated into relevant existing programs, structures and processes, rather than duplicating existing efforts.
  • An inclusive multi-sectoral partnership approach was used to build community capacity and a cumulative knowledge base. This collaborative approach promoted shared ownership and responsibility between older people and key stakeholders.
  • Implementation was guided by a series of locally determined and evidence- based community action plans.
  • The approach used was derived from a community based participatory research and practice model.  This was similar to that used in the original Stay On Your Feet project in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales in the 1990s which promoted a falls prevention message within a strong active ageing context and sought to intervene in a wide range of fall related risk factors while maintaining an emphasis on physical activity.

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Last updated: 3 October 2012