Social frailty is an emerging issue, which considers how social resources, behaviours, activities and self-management abilities are necessary to fulfil basic social needs. Social frailty can be a precursor to physical frailty and falls.
Older adults who are socially frail are at an increased risk of becoming physically frail, due to the influence between social factors and physical function. Social frailty is associated with a fear of falling and recurrent falls, and it can be seen that older adults who have frequent falls are more likely to experience reduced social engagement, which can then lead to social frailty.
Social frailty is preventable and reversible, and it is important to address
social frailty to improve physical and mental health outcomes.
As part of the Stay On Your Feet® program, Injury Matters has collaborated with Edith Cowan University’s (ECU) Social Ageing Futures Lab (SAGE Futures Lab) to present the “Understanding Social Frailty and Its Association with Falls” webinar. Guest speakers, Dr Manonita Ghosh and Dr Hien Thi Nguyen, explored the emerging issue of social frailty and the Social Ageing (SAGE) Social Frailty Index assessment tool for clinicians and researchers that was developed at ECU.
Dr Manonita Ghosh, Dr Hein Thi Nguyen and the ECU SAGE Futures Lab team have developed the “Stay Connected Stay Steady” resource to support clinicians to prevent and address social frailty among older adult clients.
The resource provides a snapshot of social frailty and ways to reduce the risk of social frailty and falls through social support networks, social engagement, literacy, wellbeing, and financial resources.
