Through a Stay On Your Feet® Move Your Body Grant in 2025, Astley Care delivered a six-week falls prevention program at the Langford Community Centre in the City of Gosnells. The program engaged 58 older adults across four groups and was led by a physiotherapist and an occupational therapist. The program provided participants with practical skills to improve balance, mobility, and strength to reduce their risk of falls.
Each 90-minute session combined a 1-hour exercise component based on the evidence-based Otago Exercise Program with a 30-minute education session that followed. Exercise activities focused on progressive balance and lower limb strength training, while education covered topics including home safety, foot care, nutrition, medication management, safe techniques for getting up after a fall, and staying active in the community. Participants also received a home exercise program to support continued activity beyond the program.
To measure outcomes, participants completed pre- and post-program assessments using the Timed Up and Go Test (TUG), 4-Stage Balance Test, 30-Second Chair Stand Test, Falls Efficacy Scale International (FES-I), and a self-rated falls prevention knowledge scale. The evaluation demonstrated an increase in participants’:
- mobility (14.8%)
- balance (20.5%)
- lower-limb strength (13.9%)
- fall-prevention knowledge (72.6%).
Participants also reported increased knowledge of the importance of home safety in preventing falls and of how to safely recover from a fall. Participant feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with many highlighting the benefits of exercising in a supportive group environment and expressing interest in continuing exercise after the program ended. The project also strengthened Astley Care’s partnership with the City of Gosnells, whose community promotion helped increase awareness and participation.
The success of the program has led Astley Care to plan ongoing falls-prevention group activities and to integrate falls-prevention education into existing services, supporting healthier ageing and greater independence for older adults in the community.
Interested in a Move Your Body grant?
Applications are now open for Move Your Body grants of up to $5,000 (plus GST) to fund community falls prevention projects in Western Australia from March to May 2027.