Don't call for help – be the help: how St John Ambulance Cymru is changing what happens after a fall

This Falls Awareness Week (21–25 September), the theme is "From Awareness to Action". Here's how we're putting that into practice in communities across Wales.

Picture it. Your mum, your neighbour or someone you care for has slipped on the kitchen floor. They're not badly hurt, but they can't get up. You're worried about making things worse, so you do what most of us would: you ring 999 and wait.

For an older person with no serious injury, that wait can stretch for hours. At the busiest times of year in Wales it can be more than 12. That's hours on a cold floor, losing dignity, comfort and, often, confidence.

At St John Ambulance Cymru, we believe it doesn't have to be this way. We're piloting a new approach that gives ordinary people the skills to help safely, right there and then.

Falls are a community health emergency

Falls are not a normal part of ageing, but they are incredibly common:

• Around 1 in 3 adults over 65, and half of those over 80, will fall at least once this year.
• Somewhere in the UK, an older person falls every 10 seconds.
• Six in ten falls happen at home.
• In 2023, the Welsh Ambulance Service received more than 51,000 calls about falls – around 140 every day.
• Falls cost the NHS an estimated £2.3 billion a year and lead to more than 250,000 hospital admissions among over-65s.

Fallers without serious injury often face the longest waits for an ambulance. For people with other health conditions, that "long lie" on the floor can cause real harm. For many more, it's the start of a slide in confidence and independence.

And with more of us living into our 70s, 80s and beyond, the number of falls is set to rise.

From "get help" to "be the help"

Over the past few decades, community CPR and defibrillator training has made the public far more confident to step in when someone's heart stops. We want to do the same for falls.

Our Falls in the Community project, supported by the Further Faster grant, is piloting free, two-hour community training sessions. They're for the people most likely to be there when someone falls:

• unpaid carers, family members and neighbours
• care home and support staff
• community volunteers
• anyone who wants to help make their community safer

Sessions are delivered by experienced St John Ambulance Cymru trainers and trained volunteers, with bilingual resources in Welsh and English. They cover:

1. Falls awareness and prevention – spotting hazards around the home, like trailing cables and loose rugs.
2. Assessing the faller – using the free iSTUMBLE app to check for signs that mean an ambulance is needed, such as intense pain, a head or neck injury, or loss of consciousness.
3. Helping someone up safely – practical techniques and, where available, lifting equipment.
4. What happens next – when and where to get longer-term support after a fall.

The aim is simple. If someone is uninjured or has a minor injury, the people around them can help them off the floor and into a chair or bed. Any wait for a health professional is then spent warm, comfortable and safe. And if it is serious, they'll know to call 999 straight away.

We're also developing a new online e-learning module, so even more people can build these skills in their own time.

It's already working

The results from our work so far are striking. In our 2025/26 pilot, three in four fallers who were assessed by people we'd trained were safely helped off the floor by those present, with no further need for the NHS.

We've seen the same in care homes. Between June and December 2025, staff in care homes trained by St John Ambulance Cymru recorded 2,261 falls:

• 1,653 were assessed using iSTUMBLE
• 1,274 residents were safely lifted from the floor by staff
• more than half of all falls were managed safely in the home
• only around 1 in 4 led to the resident being taken to hospital or elsewhere for treatment

Behind every one of those numbers is a person who didn't spend hours on the floor waiting, and an ambulance crew freed up for someone who needed them more.

It matters for carers too. For many, the fear of hurting someone, or hurting themselves, is what stops them helping. Giving them the confidence to act reduces that anxiety and helps them keep caring for loved ones at home for longer.

What's next – and how you can help

This is just the beginning. Our ambition is to train 1,000 people across Wales and to place inflatable lifting cushions in communities such as Cardiff and Barry. Like public defibrillators, they'd be there for anyone who needs them, long after the training ends.

Alongside the community project, St John Ambulance Cymru already supports NHS Wales through our national falls response service. We also train care home teams and are launching new e-learning, so help is available wherever falls happen.

Three simple things you can do this Falls Awareness Week:

1. Check for hazards. Take five minutes to look around an older relative's home for trailing cables, loose rugs and poor lighting.
2. Download iSTUMBLE. The free app guides you through checking someone who has fallen and deciding whether they need an ambulance.
3. Book a free session. Whether you're a carer, a care worker or a community group, get in touch to find out about Falls in the Community training near you. You can also meet the team in Newport on 7 October.

Falls happen every 10 seconds. With the right skills, the person who's there can make all the difference.

Don't call for help – be the help.

For more information on our Community Falls training, please get in touch with our Community Training team through emailing: [email protected]