Falls Prevention
A design-led community research project in Teignbridge.
In Teignbridge, rising demand for housing adaptations and limited public funding were putting increasing pressure on local services. Teignbridge District Council, supported by the Design Council and Made Open, set out to explore whether a design-led, preventative approach could reduce falls, improve home safety and lessen reliance on costly reactive interventions.
Falls prevention is a complex, system-wide issue.
Older people fall for many different reasons: reduced mobility, poor home layouts, lack of timely support, fragmented services and limited awareness of risk. Too often, help only arrives after a serious fall has already happened. With £890,000 spent annually on housing adaptations and demand continuing to rise, the challenge was to prevent falls before they occur and create solutions that work for older people in real homes.
User-centred, design-led programme.
We conducted interviews with older people who had experienced falls, mapped the full falls prevention and response journey through collaborative workshops, and prototyped bold public communication campaigns: • Sound advice: a vintage record installation using 1960s music to share prevention messages • Fall victim: chalk 'crime scene' outlines highlighting local fall statistics • Fall proof: a playful campaign using bubble wrap to spark interest in home safety
Meaningful change across systems, culture and practice.
Key outcomes included a deeper shared understanding of falls as a systemic issue, stronger collaboration between housing, health and social care teams, new ways of working rooted in prevention, design methods embedded into wider council practice, and successful funding bids to continue and expand the work.
"This project fundamentally changed how we work, not just what we do. It strengthened our partnerships with health and social care and helped us take a more inclusive, preventative approach to falls and home safety."
Amanda Pujol
Housing Lead, Teignbridge District Council
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