The strategic development of the NSW Health Plan for Prevention of Falls and Harm from Falls Among Older People: 2011-2015; translating research into policy and practice.

With our rapidly ageing population there is an urgent imperative to minimise the rate of falls and associated injuries. A key challenge to public health is to better conceptualise and contextualise falls prevention evidence for more effective policy making and practice. This paper describes how NSW Health adopted the Nutbeam and Bauman Stages of Research and Evaluation Model in the strategic development of the NSW Health Plan for Prevention of Falls and Harm from Falls Among Older People: 2011-2015. Research evidence has been comprehensively applied to every stage of the development of the Plan and research and evaluation is a key action area within the new Plan. The Stages of Research and Evaluation Model provides a useful overarching framework for policy makers to contextualise and more effectively apply research evidence throughout the policy making process from problem definition to program monitoring.