Dear ANZ Falls Prevention Society Members,
We are pleased to announce that the draft Recommendations and Good Practice Points from the Australian Fall Prevention Guidelines, prepared for the Australian Commission on Quality and Safety in Health Care, are now available for consultation here.
Please send any feedback you may have to this email: anzfallsprevention@neura.edu.au by the 25th February 2024 c.o.b.
In the lead up to the 2023 Joint Conference of the Australia and New Zealand Falls Prevention Society & World Falls Congress, we chat with Dr Sue Dyer, one of the invited speakers. Sue is a Senior Research Fellow at Flinders University. She has worked as a researcher in both the public and private sector, with expertise in evidence-based medicine methodologies including health technology assessment, systematic reviews, meta-analysis and guideline development, particularly within the fields of geriatrics and diagnostic technologies.
Sue will be presenting on falls prevention in residential aged care: updated meta-analyses with novel analyses for complex interventions
In the lead up to the 2023 Joint Conference of the Australia and New Zealand Falls Prevention Society & World Falls Congress, we chat with Dr Hannah Seymour, one of the invited speakers. Hannah is the Medical Lead of the Electronic Medical Record Program Team, as well as a Consultant Geriatrician at the Fiona Stanley Fremantle Hospitals Group. Hannah has worked in Acute Orthogeriatrics at Fiona Stanley Hospital since 2015 where she shares the care of older people with orthopaedic surgeons.
Hannah will be presenting at the conference on how technology can help us in caring for older people at risk of falls and fractures.
With Presentations from Dr Jennie Hewitt and Rik Dawson.
Presented by the ANZFPS Early-Mid Career Researcher Sub-Committee
Presenters: Dr Jennie Hewitt and Rik Dawson
Dr Jennie Hewitt will discuss the implementation of Sunbeam (successful fall prevention intervention) into RACF. Rik Dawson will discuss his experience delivering fall prevention exercise using telehealth focusing on the user experience. Jennie and Rik will also discuss how AN-ACC has influenced fall prevention activities and provided opportunities for practice change in RACF.
Dr Jennie Hewitt is a physiotherapist, educator, and academic researcher with a passion for delivering best practice. She has been awarded an Australian National Lifetime Achievement Award, and a National Commendation for Better Practice for her work on the Sunbeam Aged Care Exercise Program. She attained the Morley Award, for the paper most likely to influence policy and practice, from the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. Her work has been used to advocate for Australian Aged Care Funding Reform, she appeared as an expert witness at the Royal Commission and has worked as Technical Advisor to the Federal Chief Allied Health Officer on the implementation and scaling of the Sunbeam Program in 119 aged care facilities across Australia. In 2022 she won the innovAGEING award with Whiddon for a project that used exercise to address chronic pain and deconditioning and in 2023 she was named as an Ageing Asia Global Trailblazer.
Rik Dawson graduated from Sydney University in 1993. Rik is a titled Gerontological Physiotherapist, Vice President of the Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA) and the APA representative on the Aged Care Quality Standard Clinical Working Group. Rik was the owner of Age well Physiotherapy, a practice that employed physiotherapists and occupational therapists in Aged Care across Australia. Rik sold his practice in 2020 and is now enrolled at Sydney University as PhD candidate where he is focusing on telehealth for older people. Rik is a graduate of the AICD and has been a Director of the APA since 2017. Rik was a member of the Audit and Risk Committee and the Director member on the Physiotherapy Research Foundation where he worked to connect research to policy and practice. Rik currently chairs the Nominations, Remuneration, and Governance Board sub-committee. He has a passion for communication, advocacy, leadership and good governance. Rik believes that linking strategy to member value is key to non-profit organisation’s success.
The 10th Biennial Australia and New Zealand Falls Prevention Conference (ANZFP) will for the first time be run as a joint conference with the World Congress on Falls and Postural Stability at the Perth Convention Centre, from the 26-28 November 2023. Up to 400 delegates are expected to attend the conference from throughout Australia, New Zealand and overseas.
Late breaking abstract submissions are now being accepted (submission deadline Friday 15th September). The opportunity exists for a limited number of oral presentations in a session dedicated to new information or important findings not fully available before the general abstract submission deadline. Late-breaking poster submissions will also be considered.
Early bird tickets are still available until Friday the 15th September. For more information visit the website: 10th Biennial ANZFPS Conference 26-28 November 2023
To join our mailing list to be kept up to date with information on the conference, click here
In the lead up to the 2023 Joint Conference of the Australia and New Zealand Falls Prevention Society & World Falls Congress, we chat with Dr Sandra Luliano, one of the keynote speakers. A Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Sandra recently completed a trial in 60 residential aged care homes. Her randomised controlled trial investigated the effect of of supplementing the daily diet of older residents with additional dairy foods, on falls and fractures.
In the lead up to the 2023 Joint Conference of the Australia and New Zealand Falls Prevention Society & World Falls Congress we continue our series of interviews with the keynote speakers to get to know them and their research interests. Today we speak to Professor Stephen Lord. Steve is a Scientia Professor at the University of New South Wales and Senior Principal Research Fellow at Neuroscience Research Australia. His research interest involves the identification of neuropsychological, sensorimotor and balance risk factors for falls and the development and evaluation of fall prevention strategies.
He will be presenting an overview of the updated Australian Fall Prevention Guidelines which will be launched at the conference.
In the lead up to the 2023 Joint Conference of the Australia and New Zealand Falls Prevention Society & World Falls Congress, we are launching a series of interviews with some of the keynote speakers to get to know them and their research interests. Today we chat with Prof Anne Tiedemann. A Robinson Fellow at the University of Sydney, Anne recently completed the first trial internationally to evaluate the effect of yoga on falls in people aged 60 years and older. Her research develops and evaluates scalable physical activity-based strategies to promote health and prevent falls in middle to older age.
A webinar presented by the ANZFPS Early-Mid Career Researcher Sub-Committee
Presenters: Prof. Pazit Levinger, Prof. Debra Waters, Dr. Christina Ekegren
The webinar took place on the 8th May 2023. Prof Levinger discussed the use of the Seniors Exercise Parks to improve physical activity and reduce fall risk. Prof Waters discussed the “Steady As You GO” program, an effective model of community-based peer-led exercise in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Dr Ekegren discussed physical activity and sedentary behaviour in hospital settings.
Prof Pazit Levinger is a Principal Researcher (Accredited Exercise Physiologist) at National Aging Research Institute. Prof Levinger also holds honorary positions at the Rehabilitation, Ageing and Independent Living Research Centre, Monash University and the Institute for Health and Sports, Victoria University. Prof Levinger’s current research focuses on research translation and community work with local government engagement. Prof Levinger is an expert in the area of age-friendliness outdoor sites specifically designed for older people, and currently works closely with government bodies in strategic development and planning around the built environment and public health impact.
Prof Debra Waters is the Director of Gerontology Research at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. She also holds a Research Professor appointment at the University of New Mexico, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Prof Waters is the co-director of the Otago Falls Network, an executive member of the Australia and New Zealand Falls Prevention Society and on the steering committee of the International Conference on Sarcopenia and Frailty Research (ICFSR). Prof Waters’s research career has been focused on maintaining physical function and preventing sarcopenia and falls in older adults.
Dr Christina Ekegren is a Senior Research Fellow within the Rehabilitation, Ageing and Independent Living Research Centre. Dr Ekegren research focuses on physical activity in clinical populations, specifically hospitalised patients, older adults, and people recovering from traumatic injury. Dr Ekegren is currently a registered physiotherapist and adjunct researcher with the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, an Honorary Fellow at Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, an Honorary Research Fellow of the Emergency and Trauma Centre, Alfred Health, and a Research Collaborator with the Centre for Ageing Solutions for Mobility, Activity, Rehabilitation and Technology at Vancouver Coastal Health.