Devoid of rigorous actions by the community, the researchers and the health care practitioners are of the opinion that the burdens of falls will amplify by colossal magnitudes in the next few years. As a result, collaboration is imperative so that the community develops initiatives that focus on falls prevention.
Falls cause massive burdens on the people and the health care systems. As the populace ages, harmful effects of falls keep on increasing. According to research, falls are the principle causes of deaths, injuries and hospitalizations of old people. Moreover, majority of the old people who fall suffer from decreased mobility and reduced independence. Although research that identifies preventive approaches has been undertaken, the adoption of these approaches has not received emphasis. Moreover, from the acuity of the public health, motives for this neglect include the notion that falls prevention is not perceived as an imperative issue, a conviction that falls are unavoidable aging aspects, and the challenge that prevention needs collaboration among people who have never worked collectively. Additionally, research illustrates that effective strategies to prevent falls subsist and they include exercises, proper management of drugs that influence balance and concentration, home modifications, environmental engineering, psychological counseling and community education. Finally, in response to issues related to falls, the implementers of the falls prevention strategies should incorporate the theory of change into the strategies.
The theory of change is imperative because it helps researchers to implement the proposed changes with ease. The theory is an articulation of beliefs and postulations that direct the service delivery strategies (McFarlane & Anderson, 2008). Furthermore, the theory symbolizes beliefs about the needs of the target population and the strategies of satisfying them. As a result, it considers the association between the strategies and the real outcomes while making connections between the people being served, the strategies, the implemented activities and the expected outcomes.
The theory of change contains two extensive components. The first component entails conceptualization of frames of the theory. The frames are population, strategies and outcomes (Parker, 2007). Population are the people who benefit from the project, strategies are actions that satisfy the expected outcomes, while outcomes are what the researchers intend to achieve. Additionally, the second component entails creating and expressing an understanding of the relationship among population, strategies and outcomes.
The theory of change assists the implementers to shift from passive collectors of information to active information users because it helps them understand the value of the information required as well as assisting them to develop research questions that focus on the population, the strategies and the outcome (McFarlane & Anderson, 2008). Finally, the theory helps the implementers to understand assumptions as well as expectations that direct their decisions, their actions and their resulting accomplishments.
The theory supports the proposed solution by focusing on the population, the strategies and the outcomes. The population is the group of old people, the strategies are the proposed solutions that include environmental engineering, exercises and monitoring of medication therapy while the outcome is the intention of the researcher, which is to reduce the falls prevalence. Therefore, the theory of change ensures that the proposed solutions focus on the old people and that the rate of falls reduces.
The incorporation of the theory into the project will take place from the beginning right through to the end of the project. This is because the theory entails identification of the problem, formulation of proposed solutions, implementation and evaluation. For instance, the population frame of the theory requires the researcher to identify the target population and that the project targets the old people. Additionally, the strategies are the proposed solutions and the researcher needs to use the theory to ensure that the solutions meet the needs of the old people.
In conclusion, the theory of change is imperative in implementation of the falls prevention strategies. As a result, researchers should adopt the theory.
References
McFarlane, J., & Anderson, E. (2008). Community as Partner: Theory and Practice in Nursing. New York: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
Parker, M. (2007). Patterns of Nursing Theories in Practice. Oxford: Oxford Publisher.