Reviewer, Clinical Practice Standards, Falls Prevention in Community Settings

Volunteer Opportunity
Falls and fall-related related injuries can lead to a number of health complications. The good news is – falls are preventable.   Join Northern Health as they update a falls prevention strategy for community settings. Patient Partners are needed to review the draft and offer suggestions for improvement based on their experiences as patients, clients and/or caregivers.

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Lead Organization/Department
Northern Health, Rehabilitation Services Program

Aim
The falls prevention strategy is being updated to reflect the latest evidence and best practices.
By reviewing the draft strategy and making comments, patient partners can help to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement and contribute to efforts to improve patient/client outcomes and experiences.

Level of Engagement
This opportunity is at the level of consult on the spectrum of engagement. The promise to you is that the health care partner will listen to and acknowledge your ideas and concerns, and provide feedback on how your input affected the decision.

Eligibility
• Ability to join and participate via ZOOM. Phone in option is available
• Patient/client experience with home support or home support nursing may be an asset but is not required
• Please note: the placement process for this opportunity may include an informal interview between the volunteer and the health care partner.
• If you have a strong interest in this work but have not yet completed a PVN orientation and Volunteer Agreement, are unsure if your experience is a good fit or feel another format of engagement would work better with your availability, please contact Cathy Almost

Logistics
• Number of vacancies: 2-5
• Date and Time: To be determined by group. Beginning May 2021 (earliest) Approximately 2.5 hours without any pre-reading (5-10 hours reviewing documents)
• Location: Virtual
• Commitment: one week to six months
• There will be two sessions associated with this engagement.
1. Orientation session (1hr) – To review process of the development of policies and clinical practice standard, and also to provide background on the fall prevention strategy in Northern Health
2. Draft review meeting (1.5hr) – To share ideas for improvement to the draft Falls Prevention for Community Setting Individuals clinical practice standard
It is anticipated that patient partners may spend up to 5-10 hours reviewing documents independently.

Reimbursement
No out of pocket expenses are anticipated for this engagement opportunity. However, if you meet the eligibility criteria, but have concerns about your ability to participate, please contact Cathy Almost at calmost@bcpsqc.ca to see if support options are available. We are always seeking to better understand and reduce barriers to participation.

Background
Northern Health’s falls prevention strategy needs to be kept up to date to reflect evidence informed practices as well as person and family centred care approach. The draft review meeting will include Patient Voices Network members, the Executive Lead of Rehabilitation Services, and members of the falls prevention clinical practice standard development team. Approximately 6 Northern Health staff and patient partners  will be at the meetings.

Community Settings refers to all community dwelling individuals (assisted living, independent community dwelling, clients accessing long-term services, and even kids/adolescents). There are 3 separate sections that address the primary sub-groups (a. Assisted Living/Long Term service, b. Independent community dwelling, and c. younger adult/adolescent/children).

Background materials will be shared with patient partners in advance of the orientation session and draft review meeting. The outcome of this work will directly impact patient/client experience in community care settings.

Health Care Partner Contact Information

Cathy Almost
Engagement Leader, Patient and Public Engagement | Northern Region
250-615-9932
calmost@bcpsqc.ca