Facts about Falls:
One third of people over 65 will fall each year (Office of National Statistics 2002, taken from Warwickshire Specialist Health Promotion Service, Preventing Falls in Older People, 2002). This is 16,000 people in Lambeth and Southwark alone.
Falls account for 62 per cent of all fatal injuries in older people aged 65 and above (Office of National Statistics 2002, taken from Warwickshire Specialist Health Promotion Service, Preventing Falls in Older People, 2002).
Over 60 per cent of people in care homes fall each year (Cryer, C. & Patel, S. Falls, Fragility & Fractures: The Case for and Strategies to Implement a Joint Health Improvement & Modernisation Plan for Falls & Osteoporosis, November 2001, taken from Electronic Library for Social Care - www.elsc.org.uk).
The NHS spends £5 million a day and over £1.7 billion a year to treat people with osteoporosis (National Osteoporosis Society, What is Osteoporosis? www.nos.org.uk 23.06.04).
Individually tailored exercise programmes can reduce the incidence of subsequent falls in fit older people (Campbell et al, (1997) Inventions to reduce the incidence of falling in the elderly, NSF for Older People, DoH, 2001)
