THE Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care has released new guidelines for falls prevention in older adults, highlighting the role of pharmacists in helping to prevent medication-related falls.
Revised and updated for the first time since 2009, the Falls Guidelines (2025) have been devised for three different settings: residential aged care services, hospitals and community care.
The guidelines provide clear recommendations and good practice points based on evidence from systematic reviews and expert opinion.
Health professionals are able to use this guidance to work with people at risk of harm from falls to reduce risk factors and tailor interventions for a person-centred approach.
Among the good practice points are regular medication reviews, with a particular focus on medicines that impact cognition, falls and osteoporosis.
When deprescribing is not an option, or when new medicines are introduced, older people need to be advised about ways to reduce their risk of falling.
Senior Research Scientist at NeuRA's Falls, Balance and Injury Research Centre, Assoc Prof Jasmine Menant, was part of the team that worked on the five-year project in collaboration with the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care.
"Falls have a big impact on individuals, as the consequences can be life-changing, from injury, to early admission into residential aged care or even mortality," Assoc Prof Menant said.
"They also have a big impact on our economy, with falls of Australians aged over 65 years old costing the health system more than $2.8 billion annually", she added.
The Falls Guidelines (2025) combined research, community consultation and more to develop recommendations and best practice for a range of settings, Assoc Prof Menant explained.
"The guidelines build on our work at the Falls, Balance and Injury Research Centre, by translating the highest level of scientific evidence into effective fall prevention initiatives into evidence-based guideline care.
"They recommend a tailored approach with different interventions to different people, according to whether they have fallen in the recent past and what additional individual risk factors they have."
Assoc Prof Menant said the guidelines continued to address the three settings where falls may occur, and looked at the importance of interventions, not just risk assessments.
"For all settings there is an emphasis on implementation of interventions rather than assessment of risk," Assoc Prof Menant said.
"For example, in residential aged care, there is stronger evidence to support the ongoing delivery of exercise for fall prevention, and in the community, highlighting different approaches to intervention for people with different levels of risk."
The Falls Guidelines (2025) are available HERE. KB
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 30 Jun 25
To see the full newsletter, see the embedded issue below or CLICK HERE to download Pharmacy Daily from 30 Jun 25
