Falls Prevention and Decaffeination Webinar

As part of Continence Awareness Week, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust’s (UHL) Adult Continence Team launched their ‘Taste the Difference Challenge’. The team worked collaboratively with ward staff and housekeepers in Leicester’s Hospitals, to promote and offer decaffeinated tea and coffee to inpatients across the Trust which delivered outstanding results in respect of patient fall reductions.

Apart from reducing overactive bladder symptoms such as urinary urgency which is known to contribute to falls in hospitals and care homes, there are numerous additional health benefits from decaffeination including; reduced sleep disturbance and insomnia, reduction in tachycardia and palpitations, helping to prevent dehydration and headaches, as well as reducing indigestion and lowering the risk of osteoporosis as caffeine prevents absorption of calcium.

Care England, in partnership with UHL, delivered a webinar to inspire care home providers to introduce decaffeinated tea/coffee as the default option within their services.

Sarah Coombes, Continence Nurse Specialist at University Hospitals of Leicester joined us to share the benefits of decaffeination, the success of the programme in a hospital setting and its applicability for the adult social care sector as a solution to aid falls prevention, enhance sleep and increase the health of residents overall.

The key themes that touched on during the webinar include: ​

• Switching to decaffeinated tea and coffee to reduce resident falls
• Improving health outcomes
• Saving money
• Impact and benefits to the health and social care sector overall

You can find a recording of the webinar below.

The webinar slides can be downloaded here.

If you are considering implementing decaffeinated tea and coffee as the default option in your service(s), please let us know by contacting Ioan Bishop, our Policy and Parliamentary Affairs Officer, at ibishop@careengland.org.uk. We will share additional materials to support you implement this initiative, including posters, a resident feedback form and decaf leaflet. We are eager to work collaboratively with members considering implementing this initiative so we can ensure positive outcomes are recorded.