Inactivity during the pandemic has seen the rate of older people suffering falls shoot up "horrendously".
That's according to a senior NHS consultant in the North East - but Dr Steve Parry has put his efforts into putting together a programme called HowFit which is designed to get people who aren't active doing exercise for free and in their own homes. Dr Parry is, building on the back of the scheme's success so far, hoping that persuading more people to do a few simple exercises each day can reverse some of the damage caused by the lockdowns of the past two years.
Dr Parry is a consultant at the Newcastle Healthcare NHS Trust. With personal trainer Phil Earley and physiotherapists Heidi Williams and Skye Owen, he has developed the programme of exercises - and says that the results have seen care homes slash the number of falls they see and even dramatic improvements in some people with dementia.
