What to Do If a Client Falls: A Support Worker's Guide

If a client falls during your shift, stay with them and work out whether it looks serious. If it does, call 000 and ask for an ambulance. If it does not, tell the person's contact, make sure the person and their contact know that healthdirect advises seeing a doctor after any fall, and write an incident note the same day.

This guide covers the practical, non-clinical side of a fall. It is not first aid training. A first aid course, your own training and the instructions you get from 000 come first.

What to do straight after a fall

The first minutes are about staying calm and making a clear decision. Speak to the person in a steady voice, tell them you are there, and ask how they feel before anything else happens.

Then decide which of these two situations you are in:

• The fall looks severe. Call 000 and ask for an ambulance.

• The person seems unhurt and is alert. They are talking normally and say they feel fine. You still treat this as a fall that needs reporting and a follow-up with their doctor.

According to healthdirect, someone who has had a severe fall should go to the nearest emergency department or call triple zero (000) and ask for an ambulance.

Stay with the person until help arrives

Do not leave the person alone while you make calls if you can avoid it. If you need to phone someone, use speaker or call from beside them. Keep talking to them, and keep other people in the home calm and out of the way.

A support worker's role is to call for help, not to be the help. The support worker role explainer puts it plainly: it isn't emergency response. Clinical decisions belong to paramedics, nurses and doctors.

Who to tell afterwards

Once the person is safe, or in the hands of paramedics, the next job is telling the right people. Who that is depends on the person and the arrangement you have with them.

• The person's nominated contact. This is usually a family member or another person the client has named. Check who it is before you start work, not after a fall.

• The coordinator or the person managing the support. If someone coordinates the person's care, they need to know the same day so they can adjust the plan.

• The person's doctor. According to healthdirect, a doctor should see the person after a fall, even when the person was not injured, because falls can be a sign of other health issues. Making sure the person and their contact know this is part of your job. Making the appointment or judging the cause is not.

Stick to what you saw and heard. Do not guess at a cause or suggest a diagnosis.

Write an incident note the same day

An incident report records a specific event such as a fall or an injury, and it is kept separate from a routine shift note or handover. The handover notes guide for support workers explains how the three kinds of record differ.

Write the note while the details are fresh. A useful incident note covers:

• the date, time and place in the home

• what you saw, in plain facts, and what the person said happened

• what you did and when, including the time you called 000 or anyone else

• who you told and when

• anything you did not see, so you do not fill gaps with guesses

Keep the language neutral. Write "client was found on the bathroom floor" rather than "client slipped because the floor was wet" unless you saw it happen.

The fall can affect confidence too

Many falls do not cause a serious injury, but they can still leave a mark. According to healthdirect, even when a fall does not cause an injury, it can trigger a loss of confidence and a fear of falling, and over time this can make an older person less active, which raises the risk of falling again.

Be patient in the days after. Ask the person how they are feeling, keep to the routine you have agreed, and share what you notice with their contacts. The person-centred care tips for support workers cover how to keep the person's choices and dignity at the centre of that conversation.

Frequently asked questions

What is my role if a client falls?

The support worker role explainer puts it simply: you call for help, you are not the help. If the fall looks severe, healthdirect says to call triple zero (000) and ask for an ambulance. Clinical decisions belong to the people trained to make them.

What if the person says they are fine and does not want anyone told?

You can respect how they feel and still do your job. A fall is something their contact, their coordinator and their doctor would want to know about, and healthdirect advises seeing a doctor after any fall. Explain this kindly and write it in your incident note.

How common are falls for older people?

According to healthdirect, falls are the number one cause of accidental injury in older Australians, and 1 in 4 people aged 65 years and over have at least one fall each year.

Can I stop falls from happening?

You cannot guarantee a fall will not happen, but a calm look around the home helps. The home safety checklist for older people lists the common hazards, and spotting a hazard and mentioning it is a normal part of the job.

Sources

• healthdirect, Older people and falls: causes, treatments and prevention, read 24 October 2026

• CareVicinity, What does a support worker do

• CareVicinity, Handover notes for support workers