Stowmarket volunteers step up to help those that fall

Stowmarket Community First Responders have been trained by East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) to help people who have fallen in their homes.

Falls can account for up to 20% of the ambulance service’s calls. Many people that have fallen don’t have urgent injuries and just need to be helped up and checked to ensure they’re safe to be left alone.

Paul Dunn and Liam Cross practice using the slide sheet to move a patient.

That’s where the the valuable skills of community first responders come in.  
Their specialist training means that they can help people that have fallen and have been assessed by clinicians as not needing an ambulance. The first responders will carry out on scene assessment of the person before using a special Raizer chair to help them up and leaving them safely at home.

Jonathan Needle, Community Response Manager for EEAST said: “It is essential that we respond to urgent patients quickly, while ensuring less urgent patients are not left waiting unnecessarily or transported to hospital without need.

“For this reason, we have a Falls Response Programme operating across the region that uses partnership working and innovative ways of working to help make sure that people who have fallen get the right help quickly.”
Adrian Baldry, who co-ordinates the Stowmarket volunteers, said in addition to the four volunteers that have completed the two-day falls training, a further two are currently being trained so that all six of their first responders will be ready to attend falls in their community.

The Stowmarket Community First Responders join similar Falls Response Programme schemes in Suffolk in Woodbridge, Sudbury, Felixstowe and Hadleigh.

When falls result in severe injury and patients need to be transported to hospital urgently for further treatment an ambulance will be despatched to them.