Our Falls and Fracture Prevention Service is based at the Centre for Independent Living in Knowsley.

The team of experienced nurses work with older people in the local community to help improve strength, balance, mobility and confidence. Our aim is to help people stay mobile and independent both at home and when out and about.

Knowsley’s Falls Team previously provided a postural stability programme and this was accessed directly via the Falls Team in the past. This element of the service will now be delivered by Everton in the Community who will be delivering the new Safe and Steady Programme.

The Falls and Fracture Prevention service has retained both the physiotherapy and postural stability instructor expertise as we will now be looking to work with those patients who are physically deconditioned to improve them enough to naturally progress into the Safe and Steady programme.

Please continue to refer to the Falls and Fracture Prevention services for all patients as you have been doing for a clinical assessment, however if it is a single issue around encouraging exercise in the older population then you may refer directly to Everton in the Community for their Safe and Steady programme.

The vision is to open up the access to Safe and Steady programmes to a wider referral target than just via the Falls service and encourage a more preventative approach to exercise for our older population (55 years +).

The main changes to service delivery will be the additional offer of community clinic appointments for your patients. This will be a substantial help in reducing overall waiting times in the service and improving the patient’s journey. We hope that working together we can encourage patients to make best use of these clinic appointments. We will of course continue to offer some appointments at the homes of the most vulnerable and housebound patients.

The clinic approach has been adapted to try to open its accessibility to the widest possible audience. We will encourage people to bring a relative or carer to their appointment if they choose to do so, and we will have a wheelchair on site for those with poor mobility or fear of falling to reduce the concerns around attending a clinic appoinment.

The other main change will be a new referral form for the service that will help us triage and determine the correct appointment type for your patients. You can help the service immensley by completing the form as fully and accurately as you can.

For more information on the Knowsley Falls and Fracture Prevention service contact the team on 0151 244 3362 or knowsley.falls@nhs.net

We would also be very happy to attend any practice meetings to give a more detailed explanation of the new service approach and its vision for the future.

Visit our service page for more information.

For more information on the Safe and Steady programme you can contact Jonathan.Garside@evertonfc.com