Background

Across the UK, falls are the most common cause of hospitalisation for people aged over 65, and of accidental death in those aged over 75. Undetected and untreated visual impairment plays a significant role in the high incidence of falls among older people. This prompted us to investigate ways in which we could reduce vision-related falls and encourage better connections between local falls services and community optometrists.  

The recommendations of the resulting College report, Focus on falls, have generated wide-ranging activity to raise awareness of the importance of regular eye examinations for those most at risk, and to support the inclusion of a vision check in the services offered by all UK falls teams. 

I believe that there is much that can be done to support falls teams to reduce the unnecessarily high number of falls that could be related to vision.  With a little effort we can make a huge difference to the safety and quality of life for our most vulnerable patients.

Olivier Deneve, College Policy Manager and Falls Project Lead 

Focus on falls report

Key findings:

Information gathered through interviews and an online survey suggested that around 50% of UK falls teams currently assess patients' vision as a standard part of their service, although there is variation in the frequency and method of these checks. This variation is generally due to a lack of resource and capacity within a team. Most falls teams contacted advised that they would welcome support in performing vision checks and that referral between falls teams and optometrists would help improve the patient pathway and foster greater levels of clinical continuity.

Download the full report:

Taking action

We have been working with the Local Optical Committee Support Unit (LOCSU) to support local optical committees (LOCs) and local eye health networks (LEHNs) in prioritising falls awareness. Activities included:

• Briefing parliamentarians, key stakeholders and falls leads in the four nations
• Encouraging the development of a falls and vision pathway and recommending improved falls provision in the Map of Medicine for Low Vision
• Working with Thomas Pocklington Trust to distribute an easy-to-use tool for screening older people for poor vision to falls services teams across the UK. Contact olivier.deneve@college-optometrists.org for more information and to place an order
• Working with DOCET to incorporate findings from the report in their Ageing Eye CET materials
• Encouraging falls team to register on the UK-wide falls directory. This will help our members make contact, provide support and refer any patients identified as needing falls teams services