Speaker Biographies
Professor Dawn Skelton, Professor in Ageing and Health, Glasgow Caledonian University
Professor Skelton originally got her first degree in Human Sciences at University College London in 1990 and her PhD in Human and Applied Physiology (Strength, Power and Functional Ability of Healthy Older People) and graduated in 1995. She worked at the Human Performance Laboratory at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore and then at University College London before becoming the first recipient of the Research into Ageing Queen Mother Research Fellowships. She undertook her fellowship at St Mary’s Paddington and specialised in exercise interventions to reduce falls.
Dawn then moved into practice by becoming a Falls Researcher in the NHS at Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth Health Authority. She took on the role of Scientific Co-ordinator of the EC funded ProFaNE (Prevention of Falls Network Europe) project at the University of Manchester, and is a commissioned author for the World Health Organisation and the Department of Health. She also runs training courses to move research into practice with allied health professionals and fitness instructors.
Currently she is working on another EC funded Thematic Network ProFouND (Prevention of Falls Network for Dissemination - profound.eu.org), is PI on a large MRC funded determinants of sedentary behaviour study and two NIHR studies considering exercise and falls prevention in specific populations.
Rachael Smith and Jayne Duffy, creators, developers and IP holders of The Calderdale Framework and Balance Active
They are both Physiotherapists by profession, hold Master of Science degrees and have combined NHS experience of 50 (plus!) years.
Their experience of developing The Calderdale Framework in conjunction with other agencies i.e. local authority, social services and third sector has added to their breadth and depth of their understanding in respect of the needs of a more integrated, productive workforce, which is service user centred; safe, efficient, effective and of the highest quality. Indeed, their leadership in developing the reablement service in collaboration with Calderdale MBC won the service a Modernisation Award as far back as 2002.
They have been finalists at The HSJ Awards four times, utilising The Calderdale Framework:
- 2008 for their work around delegation to non-registered staff
- 2011 for successfully implementing Assistant Practitioners into practice.
- 2013 for integration of the Health and Social Care Workforce
- 2017 for the collaborative work with NHS England and Health Education England to develop The Integrated Urgent Care Workforce blueprint
Since 2011 The Calderdale Framework has been extensively implemented in Queensland Australia. This has contributed hugely to the growing evidence base. In 2016 The Calderdale Framework was introduced into New Zealand. Both Australia and New Zealand now have Calderdale Framework Practitioners trained in order to grow and sustain future implementations via the development of their own Calderdale Framework Facilitators.
Their clinical experience in the community and passion to improve service user experience led them to embark on the journey to develop Balance Active. This was first launched at the CSP conference and Therapy Expo 2019 and was well received by AHP’s and Adult Social Care service providers.
Heather Smith BPharm (Hons), MSc, FFRPS, Consultant Pharmacist: Older People. Leeds Office of the Integrated Care Board, West Yorkshire ICB
Heather has worked with various stakeholders across Leeds as a Consultant Pharmacist since January 2013 and moved into a post commissioned by NHS Leeds CCG but working across Leeds in December 2020. Heather leads on improving medicines optimisation for older people, including review of complex frail older people, training other healthcare professionals and improving pharmacy input into care homes and intermediate care. She has been involved in a number of quality improvement initiatives in falls prevention in Primary and Secondary Care and is a member of the community falls service virtual multidisciplinary team.
Heather has led projects to improve medicines-related transfer of care including Connect with Pharmacy which refers patients to their community pharmacist for follow up post-discharge. Her research work includes deprescribing, falls, pharmacogenomics and medicines pathways for frail older people. Heather is a fellow of the Faculty of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and is a committee member for the United Kingdom Clinical Pharmacists Association Care of Older People Group, Medicines Optimisation Specialist Interest Group for the British Geriatrics Society and the RPS Education and Standards Committee.
Katie Nadin, Specialist dietitian for Falls Pathway, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Katie is a specialist Dietitian for the falls pathway. Her role involves developing a dietetic service to the falls pathway services in Sheffield which includes a focus on the prevention, identification and appropriate dietary treatment of malnutrition.
She has a BSc in Human Biology from Loughborough University and a Postgraduate Diploma in Dietetics from Leeds Beckett University. She has been working as a Dietitian for the last 7 years in both acute and community roles. Her particular interests include malnutrition, sarcopenia and nutritional screening. She is an active member of the British Dietetic Association’s Older Person’s Nutrition group.
Dr Jignasa Mehta, BSc (Hons) Orthoptics, MRes, PhD. Professional Lead – Orthoptics, Senior Lecturer, Liverpool University.
I was appointed as an orthoptic lecturer in 1999 and and my research interests lie in vision and ageing. I have recently completed a project examining the impact of vision on falls and fear of falling in older adults and involved in the National Fall Prevention Co-ordination group. My previous research experience has involved evaluating clinical issues; studying ocular symptoms affecting visual display unit users, evaluating the effect of a surgical procedure (macular translocation) for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) on ocular motility and binocular vision and appraising the use of a clinical measurement (accommodative facility) in people with ocular symptoms.
I enjoy using mixed methods in clinical research projects. I am an honorary clinical orthoptist at St.Paul's Eye Unit at the Royal Liverpool Hospital. As professional lead for orthoptics I oversee the delivery of the BSc(Hons) and the MSc Pre-registration Orthoptic programmes.
Sarah De Biase, NFPCG Deconditioning Task & Finish Group Chair, AGILE Falls and Bone Health Officer 2019 - Present (agile.fallsofficer@gmail.com)
Sarah De Biase is a physiotherapist specialising in the care and support of older people. Sarah has 20 years NHS experience across acute, community and mental health care services for older people. Sarah is currently the Falls and Bone Health Officer for AGILE (Association of Physiotherapists working with Older Adults, a physiotherapy professional network recognised by the CSP) and recently completed the AGILE Chair 2 year term of office on the AGILE National Executive Committee (Oct 2019 and Oct 2021). Sarah’s substantive role is as Allied Health Professional Lead for Older People's Mental Health Services at Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust; she also has a role as an improvement associate with the Yorkshire and Humber Improvement Academy. Sarah is a Trustee for The Frank Parkinson Yorkshire Trust, an alms-house charity in her local community.
Sarah's previous professional achievements include heading up a national quality improvement programme aimed at improving systems of care for older people living with frailty and multimorbidity, working with health and care professionals to support earlier identification and severity grading of people living with frailty using the electronic Frailty Index; and co-authoring a number of academic papers in the domain of older people’s care and support including ‘COVID-19 rehabilitation pandemic paper’ which was cited as one of most highly cited 2021 papers from Age and Ageing COVID-19 rehabilitation pandemic1 | Age and Ageing | Oxford Academic (oup.com).
Sue Dewhirst, Population Health Services Manager and Chair of the National Falls Prevention Coordination Group (NFPCG), National NHS Public Health team, NHS England
Sue joined the national Healthcare Public Health (HCPH) team in Public Health England (PHE) in 2019 and moved to NHS England on 1st October 2021, as part of the PHE transition. She is now based in the NHS Public Health team in the Medical Directorate.
Part of Sue’s role is leading and chairing the National Falls Prevention Coordination Group (NFPCG). She is a member of the NFPCG ‘Deconditioning’ Task & Finish Group.
The NFPCG is made up of a hugely experienced range of experts in falls and fractures prevention from over 40 organisations across England, who are working together to influence policy, encourage new research and develop new resources for commissioners and service providers. Resources include those produced on ‘deconditioning’ and published on the BGS website, Falls All Our Health resource and others produced on eye health/ vision and falls. Sue works closely with NHS and OHID regional and national leads and works collaboratively across the Public Health system in England and with the 4 Nations.