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Falls and frailty

Falls, frailty and dignity of risk

Many families of someone in aged care will, at some point, take a phone call about a fall. This section explains what the evidence shows about preventing falls and the injuries they cause, and how safety is weighed against a person’s right to keep moving.

By Dr Josh Hatch, FRACGP

Where to start

Residents & families

  1. Falls in aged care: how common, and why
  2. Dignity of risk: the right to keep walking
  3. After a fall: what should happen

Aged care staff

  1. What prevents falls: the evidence
  2. Restraint, bed rails and alarms
  3. After a fall: what should happen

GPs & clinicians

  1. What prevents falls: the evidence
  2. Medicines and falls
  3. Bone health and fracture prevention
  4. Hip fracture: what to expect and how decisions are made

Facility leadership

  1. Falls: a guide for facility leadership
  2. What prevents falls: the evidence
  3. Restraint, bed rails and alarms

All topics

Written for
01

Falls in aged care: how common, and why

What the numbers say, what causes a fall, and why zero falls is the wrong target

Residents & families Aged care staff 6 min read
02

Dignity of risk: the right to keep walking

How safety and freedom are balanced, who decides, and how the decision is recorded

Residents & families Aged care staff Facility leadership 7 min read
03

What prevents falls: the evidence

Each common intervention, graded on what trials in aged care homes found

Residents & families Aged care staff GPs & clinicians Facility leadership 10 min read
04

Restraint, bed rails and alarms

Why holding someone still does not keep them safe, and what the rules require

Residents & families Aged care staff Facility leadership 6 min read
05

Medicines and falls

Which medicines are linked to falls, what the trials of stopping them show, and where the evidence runs out

GPs & clinicians Aged care staff Residents & families 8 min read
06

Bone health and fracture prevention

Which treatments are worth it in residential care, and how life expectancy changes the answer

GPs & clinicians Residents & families 8 min read
07

Frailty: what it means and what can change

How frailty is described, why it shapes every other decision, and what trials of exercise and food found

Residents & families Aged care staff GPs & clinicians 6 min read
08

After a fall: what should happen

The first hour, the following days, and the questions worth asking

Residents & families Aged care staff 6 min read
09

Hip fracture: what to expect and how decisions are made

Outcomes after hip fracture in residential care, why surgery is usually offered, and when not operating is a reasonable choice

Residents & families GPs & clinicians 8 min read
10

Falls: a guide for facility leadership

What the Standards require, what the indicator measures, and where the evidence says effort is best spent

Facility leadership Aged care staff 7 min read

How the evidence is graded

Interventions are graded on randomised trial evidence for the outcome that matters: falls, fractures, function or survival. Trials in residential care are preferred, and evidence from hospitals or from people living at home is labelled where it is used. Numbers in the text link to the source they come from. Where the evidence is weak, conflicting or absent, that is stated.

  • Supported by trial evidence Consistent randomised trial evidence of a benefit that matters.
  • Promising, not yet proven A real signal, usually from one good trial, not yet confirmed.
  • Uncertain / conflicting Trials conflict, or the evidence is too weak to say.
  • Not supported Tested in adequate trials without showing a benefit.
  • Risk outweighs benefit Evidence of net harm.
All 46 sources → Dementia care section →

Last full evidence review: October 2026.

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