FinCH Implementation Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Implementation of the ACTiON FALLS prevention programme (formally GtACH) into UK care homes
IRAS ID
310091
Contact name
Pip Logan
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Nottingham
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
0000, 0000
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 8 months, 18 days
Research summary
People who live in care homes are at great risk of falling. Falls are common, harmful, costly, and difficult to prevent. The ACTiON Falls programme (formally GtACH) trains and supports care home staff to identify the reasons why residents fall and then guides them to complete actions to reduce falls. In a large multicentre randomised controlled trial called the FinCH trial, the ACTiON falls programme was cost-effective and reduced falls by 43%. Therefore, the benefits of the ACTION FALLS programme have already been demonstrated, and the aim of this study is to examine what helps and what hinders its implementation.
We are working with four regions – East Midlands, West Midlands, South London and the North-East - to develop and research ideas about how to put the ACTiON falls programme into use nationwide.
We will find out about what helps and hinders the ACXTiON falls programme being implemented in three ways:
• ACTiON Collaboration Events (also known as Quality Improvement Collaboratives) will bring care home and healthcare staff together to develop and research ways to implement ACTiON falls.
• Site teams are implementing ACTiON falls in up to 20 care homes per region (60 in total). Data from all homes and residents (about 2000 residents) will tell us the extent to which ACTiON falls has had an impact within the homes.
• Working with care homes, we will develop materials used in the ACTiON falls programme; a ‘return on investment’ calculator, the implementation package, and a ‘how to’ guide for establishing Communities of Practice to deliver and sustain ACTiON falls use across regions.
The study is also considering the work that people do in managing falls and whether ACTiON falls becomes routine practice. To do this we are using an approach to talking to people in care homes called Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) which will help us to think about things which help or hinder the adoption of ACTiON falls.
This study has been developed in collaboration with care home managers, care home staff, NHS clinicians and our active Patient, Public, Involvement (PPI) group.REC name
East Midlands - Derby Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/EM/0035
Date of REC Opinion
14 Feb 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion