Preventing Falls and Improving Mobility in Residential Aged Care: Exercise Components and a Telephysiotherapy Trial

Physical therapists and physical therapist assistants working in skilled nursing facilities, long-term care, assisted living, home health and aged care services, along with rehabilitation managers and clinical educators who plan falls and mobility programs for frail older adults.

Physical therapists and physical therapist assistants in skilled nursing, long-term care and home-based aged care settings.

Intended audience

Physical Therapy

Level

Intermediate

Delivery format

Online, asynchronous, self-paced course: interactive reading with audio or video, and a scored post-test.

Based on

This course reports on two peer-reviewed papers and introduces no claim beyond them. The two papers share several authors, including the first author and the senior author, so they are best read as related lines of work from one research group rather than as fully independent confirmation of one another.

Dawson R, Suen J, Sherrington C, Kwok W, Pinheiro MB, Haynes A, McLennan C, Sutcliffe K, Kneale D, Dyer S. Effective fall prevention exercise in residential aged care: an intervention component analysis from an updated systematic review. Br J Sports Med. 2024;58(12):641-648. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2023-107505

Dawson R, Pinheiro M, Oliveira J, Haynes A, Naganathan V, Taylor ME, Bowes N, Nelson K, Rayner J, Sherrington C. The Telephysiotherapy for Older People (TOP-UP) program for improving mobility in people receiving aged care: a hybrid type 1 effectiveness-implementation randomised controlled trial. Med J Aust. 2025;223(4):205-213. doi:10.5694/mja2.70004

After completing this course, you will be able to:

1. Name the exercise features that the intervention component analysis linked to trials that reduced falls in residential aged care, and the implementation feature its authors retained in the final theory.
2. State what the TOP-UP randomized controlled trial reported for mobility, falls, pain and quality of life among older people receiving home or residential aged care, and what its authors concluded.
3. Explain where the two papers agree and where they diverge on exercise dose, delivery mode and falls outcomes, and how their shared authorship bears on how independently they support each other.

1. Start Here: Course Overview, Objectives and How to Earn Credit
2. Part One: Exercise Components That Prevented Falls in Residential Aged Care
3. Who Was Studied in the Updated Review Trials
4. How the Intervention Component Analysis Was Carried Out
5. The Right Exercise: Balance, Strength, Tailoring and Intensity
6. Resourcing, Supervision and Dose: The Second Theme and Its Limits
7. Part Two: Telephysiotherapy for Mobility in People Receiving Aged Care
8. Who Enrolled in the TOP-UP Trial
9. How the Telephysiotherapy Program Was Delivered and Measured
10. Mobility, Falls, Pain and Quality of Life at Six Months
11. Uptake, Acceptability and What the Trial Could Not Answer
12. Bringing It Together
13. Where the Two Papers Point the Same Way
14. Where They Diverge, and Which Paper Reported What
15. What This Could Look Like in Skilled Nursing and Long-Term Care
16. Questions Both Papers Leave Open
17. Key Takeaways
18. Post-Test and Course Evaluation

Quinn Millington, PT, DPT, ECS is the instructor of record: the licensed clinician who reviewed this course and signed off on it. The name and credentials print on the certificate.

Disclosures. This course was developed by The ConEd Solution, which has a financial interest in its sale. No outside funding or sponsorship was received. The instructor of record has no affiliation with the authors of the source publication or their institutions.

This course awards 1.0 contact hour (60 min). How you earn them:

1. Complete the course. Every lesson, in order.
2. Pass the post-test. Score 80% or higher. Retakes are allowed.
3. Complete the evaluation. A short form rating each learning objective and the course.
4. Download your certificate. It is issued on completion and stays available in My Account.

The episode time is its measured length. Reading, post-test and evaluation times are estimates.

This course is designed to satisfy the quality requirements state boards set for continuing education. Requirements vary by state, and confirming that a course fits your renewal is up to you. Each state’s own acceptance statement is in the credit panel on this page.

1. Dawson R, Suen J, Sherrington C, Kwok W, Pinheiro MB, Haynes A, McLennan C, Sutcliffe K, Kneale D, Dyer S. Effective fall prevention exercise in residential aged care: an intervention component analysis from an updated systematic review. Br J Sports Med. 2024;58(12):641-648. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2023-107505
2. Dawson R, Pinheiro M, Oliveira J, Haynes A, Naganathan V, Taylor ME, Bowes N, Nelson K, Rayner J, Sherrington C. The Telephysiotherapy for Older People (TOP-UP) program for improving mobility in people receiving aged care: a hybrid type 1 effectiveness-implementation randomised controlled trial. Med J Aust. 2025;223(4):205-213. doi:10.5694/mja2.70004