Allied health interprofessional falls prevention in community settings: Older adults’ perspectives through a socioecological lens

Objectives

Falls among community-dwelling older adults are a global public health concern. Although falls prevention care relies on interprofessional collaboration between medical and allied health professionals, older adults’ experiences and perspectives of allied health within multidisciplinary care remain underexplored. This research therefore explored older adults’ experiences and perspectives of allied health roles and interprofessional falls prevention care in community settings.

Design

Qualitative study using focus groups. Data was analysed using reflexive thematic analysis and interpreted through the lens of the Socioecological Model

Setting

Three metropolitan and two regional centres in Australia.

Participants

Thirty-six older adults, over 60 years of age, participated across the five focus groups.

Results

Four themes were identified: knowledge of allied health, access to care, co-ordination of care, and when and how to provide care. Each theme reflected interacting influences across socioecological levels, demonstrating the complexity of older adults’ engagement in falls prevention.

Conclusions

Despite strong support for preventative care, participants’ experiences were frequently consumer-driven, reactive and fragmented. Limited knowledge of falls and allied health, unclear access pathways, and inadequate coordination of care, shaped by organisational and policy contexts, were identified as key barriers. System-level reform that embeds falls prevention and allied health within routine care and aligns funding, coordination mechanisms and public health strategies to deliver equitable, sustainable prevention are required.

Strengths and limitations of this study

• This qualitative focus group study provides novel consumer insight into older adults’ experiences of allied health engagement in interprofessional community-based falls prevention care.

• The application of a socioecological framework enabled interpretation of falls prevention care across individual, interpersonal, community, organisational and broader system levels.

• Inclusion of participants from diverse health service contexts enhances the transferability of findings, however, the findings may not be generalisable to all contexts and may reflect the views of older adults who were sufficiently engaged in healthcare to participate.