Standing Strong

A fall prevention programme for 70+ year olds in North Limburg, The Netherlands, which aims to increase self-reliance and mobility thus leading to an improved quality of life.

  • Location

    North Limburg, Netherlands

  • Launch

    Jan 2023

  • Area

    Health, Wellbeing & Independence

Collaborators & funding partners

  • VGZ Zorgverzekeraar

  • CZ Zorgversekeringen

  • Regional Care Administration Office VGZ

  • Social Finance NL

  • Horst aan de Maas

  • Beesel

  • Peel en Maas

  • Bergen

  • Gennep

  • Venlo

  • Venray

Delivery Partners

  • De Zorggroep

  • FysuniQ

  • Individual Local Coordinators

  • Individual Physiotherapists

  • Room to

Team

Collaborators & funding partners

  • VGZ Zorgverzekeraar

  • CZ Zorgversekeringen

  • Regional Care Administration Office VGZ

  • Social Finance NL

  • Horst aan de Maas

  • Beesel

  • Peel en Maas

  • Bergen

  • Gennep

  • Venlo

  • Venray

Delivery Partners

  • De Zorggroep

  • FysuniQ

  • Individual Local Coordinators

  • Individual Physiotherapists

  • Room to

  • Mila founded and leads Bridges Outcomes Partnerships (BOP). At BOP, we work to radically improve human services and environmental initiatives to improve outcomes for people and value for society. Programmes BOP supports are dedicated to empowering people across the world to improve their lives, in areas ranging from education and wellbeing to housing, child protection, employment and environmental protection. Mila is on boards of Positive Families Partnership, Stronger Families, Forward, North East Lincolnshire Thrive, Ways to Wellness, Education Outcomes Partnerships, along with other family, employment, and refugee support focused programmes.

    Mila is also a Trustee for Clore Social Leadership, organisation dedicated to providing social leaders with world class leadership development.

    Prior to Bridges, Mila’s career spanned public, private, and third sector. Mila helped create and run Education Generation, a crowdsourcing social enterprise focused on enabling young leaders in low-and middle-income countries to participate in some of the world’s most forward-thinking education programmes.

  • Lucia Santirso, Director at Bridges Outcomes Partnerships, has been working with Bridges for the last 6 years, during which time she has designed and implemented more than 10 Outcomes Partnerships related to:

    • Supporting young people in Kenya to take control over their health choices and paths to do more with their lives,
    • Improving the health and wellbeing of adults in the UK with long-term health conditions,
    • Helping elderly adults in the Netherlands improve their mobility and reduce their risk of falling,
    • Supporting unpaid carers in the UK to improve their wellbeing and sustain their caring role,
    • Supporting young people in the UK to attain better wellbeing and education outcomes, and
    • Supporting young people in the UK with special education needs to increase their independence towards adulthood.

    Before joining the BOP team, Lucia worked in Investor Relations at Bridges Fund Management. Lucia was also part of the Global Steering Group (GSG) Policy working group and is a co-author of the resulting report: “Catalysing an Impact Investment Ecosystem: A Policymaker’s Toolkit”. Prior to joining Bridges, Lucia worked in Equity Research at J.P. Morgan.

    Lucia holds a MSc in International Finance from HEC Paris and a BSc in International Business Administration from Rotterdam School of Management.

Overview

Standing Strong (“Stevig Staan” in Dutch) aims to increase self-reliance and mobility among the older population of North Limburg, the Netherlands, to reduce falls and improve quality of life.

North Limburg is a rural, deprived and elderly region of the Netherlands with 40,000 seniors. Together, they experience 28,900 falls every year. The falls lead to 2,800 treatments at the emergency room; a significant cost to the local health system, impacting many of its citizens.

Standing Strong is a fall prevention programme for 70+ year olds in the region, focusing on improving people’s strength, flexibility and mobility via screening and a 10-14-week intervention course. It also refers participants for support with other identified risk factors (such as support with vision impairment, foot issues, home improvements, etc).

With the support of seven local authorities and two insurance providers, the programme aims to support 2,500 people over a period of five years.

Delivery innovations

An outcomes partnership has enabled a much more collaborative, flexible approach to problem-solving. This has facilitated a number of significant delivery innovations, including:

  • The programme has been designed with input from a range of actors – future participants, physiotherapists, insurance and long-term care providers, local authorities – for a highly effective approach.
  • A six month programme delivery evaluation will provide feedback from participants, physiotherapists and coordinators and inform programme adaptation.
  • Quarterly reviews allow us to identify areas of improvement early on and create solutions that take all stakeholders into account.

Outcomes

Standing Strong is currently in its second year of implementation. As the programme progresses, we will update this page with further outcomes achieved. Stay tuned!

  • 680

    Starts to the programme

  • 30

    Falls from 70-79 year olds avoided

  • 19

    Falls from 80+ year olds avoided

  • 100k

    Outcomes achieved