Falls are often described as “accidents,” but in healthcare, we understand them differently. Falls are predictable and preventable events driven by multiple risk factors over time. They carry a high personal and system-wide cost. Recovery from a fall can be lengthy, with many physical and emotional aspects. They need to be addressed to give a person the strength and confidence to get moving again.
Fall prevention is a proactive approach to reducing the risk of injury. Fall prevention is not about waiting for something to go wrong — it’s about maintaining strength, balance, and confidence in daily life. This work is not limited to older adults. Falls risk is relevant for many people, including those living with a disability, neurological conditions, or complex health presentations.
Physiotherapy sits at the centre of fall prevention. While physiotherapy can help in many ways, fall-prevention physiotherapy specifically targets the factors most commonly associated with falls: reduced balance, weaker muscles, slower reaction times, changes in walking patterns, and loss of confidence. In this blog, we’ll explain the basics of fall prevention, its relationship to physiotherapy, and how physiotherapy can help.
The Australian picture: Why falls matter?
National data on falls in Australia shows how large the problem is:
- In 2023–24, Australia recorded 248,211 hospitalisations due to falls — 43% of all injury hospitalisations.
- In 2022–23, there were 6,698 deaths due to falls, making it the leading cause of injury deaths that year.
- Falls were also estimated to cost the Australian health system over $5 billion in 2023–24.
- Risk rises sharply with age: one in four people aged over 65 has at least one fall a year, and falls are the leading cause of injury resulting in hospital admissions in people aged over 65.
Behind these numbers are real people navigating changes to their comfort, confidence and independence. That is why proactive, skilled falls assessment and physiotherapy are so important. They not only reduce the risk of injury but also help people stay active and independent in their lives.
Why people fall: Common factors
Most falls do not have a single cause. They usually occur when several small factors add up, such as:
- loss of strength and muscle mass, particularly in the hips, thighs, ankles, and core
- changes in walking patterns or foot clearance
- difficulty with transfers (getting up from a chair, bed, or toilet)
- reduced balance or slower reactions
- vision issues or cognitive load
- fatigue, medication effects, or recent illness that can affect sensation or movement
- fear of falling and reduced activity
The good news is that many of these factors can be changed — and that’s where physiotherapy has a strong evidence-based impact.
How physiotherapy helps prevent falls
Physiotherapy isn’t just “general exercise”. Falls prevention physiotherapy is an individualised program that targets specific factors that make you vulnerable to falls. Instead of a one-size-fits-all program, falls prevention physiotherapy is tailored to your health and daily function.
Physiotherapy identifies factors that can cause a fall and addresses them in a structured, progressive way. This improves stability, walking safety, and strength needed for everyday tasks like standing up or climbing stairs.
Falls prevention physiotherapy has 2 key parts: a falls risk assessment and the treatment plan.
Getting a falls risk assessment
A Falls Risk Assessment is an evaluation conducted by a healthcare professional, like a physiotherapist, to determine a person’s risk factors of falling. Along with reviewing your medical history, a physiotherapist will typically assess:
- Balance (static and dynamic)
- Strength (especially in your legs and core)
- Gait and mobility (including turning and dual-task walking)
- Footwear and walking aids
- Level of confidence and function
Physiotherapists use evidence-based outcome measures to assess balance and falls risk, such as:
This test includes 14 tasks that help physiotherapists check how well someone can maintain their balance.
In this test, a patient needs to walk a 3-metre distance using their regular footwear and assistive walking aids. Physiotherapists use this test to evaluate mobility, balance, and walking speed.
In this test, a patient has to stand up 5 times from a chair without stopping in between. The patient must move as quickly as they can. This test assesses functional lower-limb strength, translational movements, and balance to evaluate fall risk.
This test determines how far a person can go when they try to reach forward. It tests your stability and helps physiotherapists evaluate fall risks.
This assessment, along with a discussion about your goals, guides a plan that matches your risk level and daily life — whether that’s walking to the shops safely, getting up from a chair more easily, or navigating stairs.
Establishing a treatment plan
The next step after the assessment is the treatment plan. Your treatment is tailored to your health conditions and presentations, but will include the following:
Balance and strength training: the core intervention
Balance and strength training is linked to daily tasks, such as stepping, reaching, and climbing stairs, and includes:
- Targeted strength training of the lower limbs and trunk
- Static balance training exercises, such as standing with reduced support
- Dynamic balance training exercises, such as turning and weight shifting
This training is usually ongoing and progressively challenging, which means it gets harder over time to help you get stronger.
Research strongly supports functional balance and muscle strength training as the most effective exercise approach for preventing falls. Work with your physio to ensure you have a good balance as part of your treatment plan.
Gait assessment and walking practice
Physiotherapists can improve walking safety by:
- Analysing your walking pattern, speed, and safety
- Increasing step height/foot clearance
- Improving turning technique
- Training safe pace changes and obstacle navigation
- Prescribing and fitting the right walking aids (and teaching correct use)
Home hazard management and “real-world” practice
Falls often happen at home. Physiotherapists help:
- Identify trip hazards, such as loose rugs or uneven flooring; poor lighting in hallways, stairs, or bathrooms; cluttered walkways or electrical cords; and slippery surfaces in bathrooms or kitchens.
- Identify risky movement patterns at home.
- Recommend practical changes, such as rails and step edges.
- Teach safe techniques for transfers, like getting in and out of the bed, shower, car or toilet, or picking up items from the floor.
Confidence-building and emotional safety
Falls prevention is not just physical. A fall can affect your mental health and create an emotional barrier to building confidence. As confidence drops and fear of falling increases, the activity is reduced or avoided altogether. This can result in strength, balance, and mobility decline and lead to increased risk of further falls.
This cycle can develop even without a serious injury. Over time, fear of falling becomes limiting. A loss of confidence often leads people to restrict themselves long before physical capacity is truly exhausted.
Physiotherapy plays a crucial role in breaking this cycle by safely rebuilding physical capacity and confidence. Through supported movement and meaningful activities, physiotherapy helps people regain trust in their bodies and confidence in daily life.
How home physiotherapy can help
Home physiotherapy is particularly valuable for falls prevention because it:
- Identifies real-world hazards and movement patterns in your daily life
- Tailors therapy to your actual environment
- Creates exercises and strategies directly relevant to daily routines
- Provides strategies that can be immediately applied where falls are most likely to occur
- Works with you in a space you are most comfortable and helps overcome any emotional barriers to building strength
At Moving Healthcare, our physiotherapists bring extensive experience from both residential and community aged care settings. This experience strongly informs our work with NDIS participants, people with neurological conditions, and individuals with multiple contributing risk factors. We are comfortable working with people with complex presentations and tailoring intervention to the person, not just the diagnosis.
How to know if you need a fall prevention assessment and physiotherapy
A fall assessment and physiotherapy plan may be helpful if you or someone you support:
- Has experienced a fall or near‑fall
- Is recovering from an injury or illness that has affected movement and mobility
- Feels unsteady or less confident when walking
- Is avoiding activities due to fear
- Uses furniture or walls for support
Early support can make a significant difference in maintaining independence and confidence.
How Moving Healthcare can help
Falls are complex, and preventing them requires more than just “being careful”. That’s why effective fall prevention focuses on understanding you — how you move, where you live, and what support you need to feel steady and confident. With the right assessment, progressive intervention, and supportive approach, falls risk can often be reduced and confidence rebuilt.
Moving Healthcare offers experienced, in‑home physiotherapy tailored to your life and your environment. For us, fall prevention always begins with seeing the whole person. Before any formal health assessment takes place, our physiotherapists take the time to understand who you are, what matters to you, and how your therapy fits into your everyday life. We talk through your medical history, lifestyle, environment, and goals, so the assessment and treatment plan are tailored to your movement — not a checklist.
From the very first visit, we guide clients through what to expect. We explain how the assessment works, why certain tests or movements are important, and how each step connects to improving safety, strength, and confidence. This transparent, collaborative approach helps people feel comfortable, informed, and actively involved in their care.
Contact us to learn how our at-home physiotherapy services can help you move with confidence and stay safe at home.
