Speaker Biographies
Dean W Metz, Chair ACPIVR and Falls and Vestibular Specialist Physiotherapist, South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust
A 1992 graduate of SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn NY, I have practiced for 3 decades with older adults on both sides of the Atlantic. I chair the ACPIVR currently, work in an NHS Trust and have a small private practice as well. My MPH from Nova Southeastern prepared me to work in policy development on the local level. I have also taught at NYU for several years.
Dr Sara Humphrey
Sara is an Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Bradford (2022-2025) and is the Clinical Lead for Y&H Older People Mental Health & Dementia Clinical Network, and she a member of the National Older People’s Mental Health Expert Advisory Group. Sara provides local clinical leadership as the Associate Clinical Director for Frailty and Dementia for Bradford Health Care Partnership.
Sara started her career at Leeds Medical School in 1990 and following General Practice training joined Westcliffe Medical Centre (now Affinity Care ) in 1995-2022. Sara developed skills as a GP with a Special Interest in Older People and has worked for several local teams including Bradford Hospital Intermediate Care, Bradford Care Trust PACT team and, during COVID, led and worked in the Digital Care Hub ‘Super Rota’ remotely supporting care homes and their residents during the pandemic.
While in primary care Sara has led a research unit at the Affinity Care PCN recruiting participants to a wide range of clinical trials with over 2137 people to 27 clinical trials in 21-22. Sara has also been involved as a co-applicant with several trials involving frailty, dementia and medicines safety over the last 10 years. This includes PROSPER and EFI+.
Sara has supported the Doctoral Training Centre Stakeholders Advisory Group since 2016 and worked with the University on several studies.
Sara continues to be a strong advocate for research in dementia, frailty and primary and brings an expertise in understanding how primary care can support and recruit to research trials
Natalie Howson, Systems Support and Delivery Manager (interim), Yorkshire Ambulance Service
Natalie has an academic background in Biomedical Sciences with Molecular Biology from the University of Aberdeen and a Masters in Risk, Crisis and Disaster Management from Leicester University.
Natalie began her NHS career at North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) and joined Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) as a registered Paramedic in 2012.
Recently, Natalie has been working with Care Homes across the Yorkshire patch looking into methods to reduce avoidable admissions for Care Home residents. Residents in care homes have a high level of complex needs and health problems which makes them an extremely vulnerable cohort of individuals. The NHS Long Term Plan states that there were 185,000 emergency admissions a year from Care homes. This equated to 1.46million emergency bed days and that 35-40% of emergency admissions were deemed potentially avoidable.
Natalie and her colleague Samantha Pinder, as Project leads have scoped the potential effects of the Ambulance Service having a proactive Care Home Liaison Team to reduce avoidable admissions into hospital. This initiative has been accepted by the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives as part of the share and spread work AACE are doing to safely reducing avoidable conveyance programme.
North East Ambulance Service’s Falls Rapid Response Service
North East Ambulance Service’s Falls Rapid Response Service is a continuation of a pilot project funded by Newcastle and Gateshead Clinical Commissioning Group in collaboration with Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust and Newcastle Community Services. The team comprises a paramedic and occupational therapist, working on a rapid response vehicle to falls related cases for people over the age of 60 who have fallen in their own home environment. They respond to 999/111 calls or directly from other NEAS crews already on scene.
The paramedic competes a medical assessment and then the occupational therapist carries out a functional assessment, where an assessment of mobility, basic tasks around the home and identification of any further support needs are completed to identify risk factors for falls. The occupational therapist completes a holistic assessment to ensure that all the patient’s needs are met; for example, referral to equipment services, strength and balance exercises and arranging urgent care package or rehabilitation to ensure patient safety within their home. This helps minimise the risk of future falls and helps people to maintain independence.
From this assessment, they can then liaise with other medical professionals to determine the best treatment of care pathway if required. For example, direct referral to emergency assessment unit, frailty teams or primary care GP.
David Puddy joined North East Ambulance Service 25 years ago and has been a paramedic for 11 years. He began working on the falls car when the service was launched in 2018.
