FaME Ireland was a two year research project funded through a HRB Applied Partnership grant with additional funding support from the HSE.  The collaborative project evaluated current provision of FaME programmes in three 'early adopter' sites in Ireland and explored and disseminated information to improve the sustainability and reach of evidence-based community physical activity programmes for falls reduction.

Collaborating with colleagues in UCC and the HSE, and with partners in the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland and Glasgow Caledonian University, the project worked with an existing network of postural stability instructors (PSIs), physiotherapists and other health care professionals working in community-based falls prevention and management services across Ireland to explore operational successes and challenges in a number of case study sites, and to improve the availability and sustainability of community programmes across the country. 

The Principal Investigator for the FaME Ireland project was Dr Ruth McCullagh, Lecturer in Physiotherapy in the School of Clinical Therapies at University College Cork.  She worked closely with partners and colleagues in UCC, the HSE, RCSI and with Glasgow Caledonian University and the LaterLife Training team, along with other international academic partners, and a range of Irish based service providers involved in health, exercise, active aging and community based older people's services.

FaME implementation has been studied in the UK within the FLEXI Study, with Principal Investigator Professor Elizabeth Orton in Nottingham and funded by the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration. The FLEXI study builds on previous implementation work which produced the FaME Implementation Toolkit to aid commissioners of services.  More information on the FLEXI study can be found here:

Nottingham University Research FLEXI Study 

An informatic describing some key statistics and findings from an evaluation in Devon, UK of a community based FaME programme is available here:  

Supporting Older People to Get Up, Stay Up and Live Their Best Lives!  

The Irish HRB funded FaME Ireland project built on this work, and evaluated how well FaME has been implemented and rolled out in a number of 'early adopter' sites across Ireland (Kerry, Leitrim, North City Dublin, and later in the research study, Cork), in particular examining reach, effectiveness, value and sustainability themes. 

Our primary aims over the length of the project were to (1) DEFINE current service provision and practice across Ireland, along with a deeper analysis of service provision in 3 early adopter sites (North City Dublin, Kerry and Leitrim), (2) to co-DESIGN adaptations and service improvement ideas with key stakeholders, and then (3) to DELIVER the service with the changes in place, and re-evaluate service delivery.   During 2024 and early 2025, the core team met and interviewed service providers (PSIs and physiotherapists) working in all three sites, and conducted a series of focus groups with participants in the FaME classes at the sites at both midway and towards the end of the programme. The findings from these visits, along with the results of a 2024 national online survey of Irish based PSI trained professionals, and emerging findings drawn from the December 2024 Ireland Falls/FaME Symposium, informed a series of 'co-design' events run for a range of local health care professionals and managers and community based and exercise professionals and leaders working in each of the early adopter areas in March, May and June.  These events explored the links and local development of strategies and networks required to improve and consolidate the service provision for healthy aging, exercise and physical activity and falls prevention and management in each area.  In small groups, delegates considered four broad key themes - access, engagement, partnerships and sustainability.  In addition a fourth co-design workshop was held in July for the FaME leads and PSIs working in each of the early adopter areas to look at operational and service adaptations that could be implemented by the current service providers. During the latter part of the project, the researchers revisited the sites to interview clinicians, service managers and exercise professionals and ran another series of focus group with participants of FaME classes.  The core team also hosted dissemination events, including a conference held in March 2026 where national and international policy leads, experts, senior clinicians and managers came together to explore the next steps for increasing the reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation and maintanance of evidence-based community exercise programmes to contribute to a reduction in falls.