Falls

National strategy: Preventing Injury from Falls: The National Strategy 2005-2015 Te Arai i nga Aitua Hinga Te Rautaki a-Motu 2005-2015

Falls are the leading cause of hospitalisation, and one of the top three leading causes of death by injury, in New Zealand.

What's New Background and Relevant Strategies Agencies involved in fall prevention Key falls prevention resources

What's New

Background

The implementation plan has been in place for almost a year now and a general understanding of the plan has been achieved against the key action areas. The Working Group met on Wednesday 30 January 2008 to ascertain what the Plan has achieved against each activity.
Tania Grieve, Relationship Manager, commenced on 14 January 2008.

Current focus

Tania’s current focus is to review the role of the Stakeholder and Working Groups and to engage with key stakeholders to ensure they are aware of their responsibilities in respect of the Implementation Plan.
Tania will complete a Gap Analysis of the Plan.
A sub group of the Working Group will undertake a review of the evaluation framework and draft the National Falls Prevention Strategy marketing and communications plan.
Community evaluation and planning guidelines are being revised and will be placed on the website and also provided in written form.

Next steps

This will focus on achieving accountability from various stakeholders for the activities within the Plan, whilst aligning the relationships to ensure each contributor is sure of their responsibility.

For more information on the falls strategy or plan, please contact Tania Grieve, Relationship Manager, Injury Prevention at tania.grieve@acc.co.nz.

Background and Relevant Strategies

Falls (including slipping and tripping) across all age groups are the single largest cause of injury for New Zealanders - not just older adults, children and those with disabilities. During the period 2004 to 2006, over 115,000 people were hospitalised for an unintentional injury, of these 52,000 (over 45 percent), were falls-related. Nearly 1,000 fall-related deaths occurred between 2002 and 2004.

Falls are exceptionally diverse in terms of their multiple causes, location of occurrence and effective prevention across the life-span. Delivery of falls prevention services nationally has been traditionally segmented into chronological groups - children, mid-aged adults, and older adults.

Key statistics are available in the Background section of the Preventing Injury from Falls Strategy website.

Relevant Strategies

Preventing Injury from Falls: The National Strategy 2005 - 2015 was released in August 2005. The Strategy is led by ACC and aims to reduce the incidence and severity of injury from falls and the impact of fall-related injuries on New Zealanders' health and wellbeing.

See also Relevant New Zealand Strategies on the Strategy website.

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Agencies involved in fall prevention

There are a number of government agencies and other partners involved in fall prevention work. The Stakeholder Reference Group for the Prevention Injury from Falls: The National Strategy 2005 - 2015 consists of the following organisations:


Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC)	Age Concern New Zealand
Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand (ALAC)
Building Industry Authority	Cultural Strategies Management, ACC
Pacific Representative from the Disabled Persons Assembly
District Health Boards	Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, University of Auckland
Falls Prevention Research Group, University of Otago Medical School	Grey Power
Injury Prevention Research Centre, University of Auckland	Injury Prevention Research Unit, University of Otago
Ministry of Consumer Affairs	Ministry of Health
New Zealand Institute of Sport and Recreation Research, AUT	New Zealand Orthopaedic Association
Office for Senior Citizens, Ministry of Social Development	Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners
Royal New Zealand Plunket Society	Safe Waitakere (Waitakere City Council)
Safekids	Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC)
Stay on Your Feet Canterbury

Various agencies contribute to falls prevention work in New Zealand:

ACC is undertaking fall prevention work for children under 5 years old, falls in playgrounds, sports injuries (picks up falls), falls in and around the home (25-55 years) and falls in older adults. You can find more information regarding ACC's falls prevention initiatives and programmes at www.acc.co.nz.
The Ministry of Health supports programmes that address environmental risk factors, such as advocacy for safe, supportive environments and programmes to reduce hazards. Falls prevention programmes that have shown to be effective are also supported. In particular, a focus on improving strength and balance in older people, and individually tailored programmes, are the most effective in preventing falls. Particularly effective for those aged 80 years and older are home exercise programmes.
OSH undertakes work to prevent injuries caused by falls in the workplace. SPARC is involved in falls/sport injuries.
New Zealand's two injury prevention research units, IPRC and IPRU, undertake falls-related and falls prevention research.
There are many community organisations and coalitions that exist throughout the country providing support and information surrounding falls. Some of them include: Age Concern, Arthritis Society, Presbyterian Support, Local Governments, District Health Boards, Independent Practitioners Associations (IPAs), Greypower, Child Safety Foundation, Plunket, Maori Health providers, Pacific Health Providers. Many of these organisations are listed on the Falls Prevention Strategy website.

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Key falls-prevention resources

See Resources on the Falls Prevention Strategy website.

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