Service organisation for people with dementia after an injurious fall: challenges and opportunities.

INTRODUCTION: people with dementia are more likely to fall and less likely to recover well after a fall than cognitively intact older people. Little is known about how best to deliver services to this patient group. This paper explored current service provision to help inform the development of a new intervention. METHODS: qualitative approaches were used to explore the views and experiences of people with dementia, family carers and professionals providing services to people with dementia following an injurious fall. These data were analysed using a thematic, iterative analysis. FINDINGS: while a wide range of services potentially relevant to people with dementia was identified, there were no dedicated services for people with dementia with fall-related injuries in our three geographical areas. Factors influencing service uptake included a lack of knowledge of local provision amongst professionals and underdeveloped information sharing systems. Some aspects of current service organisation were incompatible with the needs of people with dementia. These include an emphasis on time-limited interventions; lack of longer-term follow-up; and service delivery in environments that could be challenging for people with dementia. CONCLUSIONS: care pathways for people with dementia who fall are fragmented and unclear. This is likely to preclude people with dementia from receiving all appropriate support and contribute to poor recovery following a fall. The findings highlight the need for new approaches to service organisation and delivery which address the specific needs of people with dementia who fall.

Embodying Transition in Later Life: "Having a Fall" as an Uncertain Status Passage for Elderly Women in Southeast London.

In their (2014 report, the charity AgeUK states that one-third of older people (over 3 million) fall each year. This article takes a focused look at falling by describing four women's accounts of "having a fall" in Walworth, southeast London, which sheds light on the experience of personal and corporeal change in later life. While some experiential studies of falling have made reference to a loss of embodied control and changes in identity, these aspects have not been explored in sufficient depth. Attending closely to the embodied experience of falling for older women in the context of everyday activity reveals the uncertainty surrounding what it actually signifies and the powerful effect this uncertainty has on their everyday lives and sense of self. This in-depth phenomenological account speaks to important gaps in the literature on falls, given the current research emphasis on the management of falls risk.