Falls prevention physiotherapy at home in Greenwich

Worried about falls, or finding the slopes and the walk to the station harder than they used to be? A Chartered Physiotherapist, registered with the HCPC, visits older adults at home across Greenwich, from Charlton and Woolwich to Eltham and Thamesmead. We work on strength, balance and stamina to help you get back to the local things you value, such as a browse round the covered market by the Cutty Sark, a walk on the heath, or an afternoon in the gardens at Well Hall Pleasaunce. Every programme starts with a falls risk assessment at home.

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Homes in Greenwich

Housing across the borough ranges from Georgian and Victorian houses around Greenwich town and Blackheath, many now split into flats, to the interwar estates of Eltham, with their rows of semis and short front paths. The Progress Estate at Well Hall is a conservation area of cottages built for Arsenal workers during the First World War. In Thamesmead, many of the original homes were built with living space raised above ground level, so there are stairs before you even reach your own front door. Woolwich has council estates and tower blocks alongside flats in the old Royal Arsenal buildings, and the Greenwich Peninsula is mostly new apartment blocks with lifts. Every visit starts with how you get around your own home, inside and out. As a physiotherapist who comes to your home, we practise the stairs, steps and walkways you actually use, at a pace that is safe for you.

Where we visit in Greenwich

We offer physiotherapy home visits across the borough, including Greenwich town, the Greenwich Peninsula, Westcombe Park, Blackheath, Charlton, Woolwich, Plumstead, Shooters Hill, Abbey Wood, Thamesmead, Kidbrooke, Eltham, New Eltham, Well Hall and Avery Hill. That covers postcodes SE3, SE7, SE9, SE10, SE18 and SE28, and parts of SE2 and SE12. There is no travel charge anywhere in London.

Coming home from hospital

Many residents are treated at Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Stadium Road in Woolwich, and some at University Hospital Lewisham, both run by Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, and are then supported by NHS community teams. SteadyMotion is an independent private service, separate from the NHS, so we can work alongside your NHS care, while you wait for it, or after it ends. After a fall, a broken hip, or a hip or knee replacement, we work on your walking aid, strength, balance and the stairs at home. Read more in our guide to home physiotherapy for older adults.

Getting out and about again

The borough has a long stretch of the Thames Path, from the Cutty Sark and the Old Royal Naval College out past the Thames Barrier to the Thamesmead riverside. Greenwich Park climbs steeply up to the Royal Observatory, with a flower garden and duck pond on the flatter upper level. Further out there are Charlton Park, Maryon Park, Eltham Park, Oxleas Wood, Avery Hill with its Winter Garden, Eltham Palace and Southmere Lake. For shopping and company, people head to Greenwich Market, Beresford Square in Woolwich and Eltham High Street, to the libraries in the Woolwich Centre and the Eltham Centre, or to Charlton House, which is now a library and community centre. Getting about can mean the Elizabeth line from Woolwich or Abbey Wood, the DLR to Cutty Sark and Woolwich Arsenal, the Jubilee line at North Greenwich, Southeastern trains, or buses. The free Woolwich Ferry and the foot tunnel cross the river. Shooters Hill, Blackheath and the slope up to the Observatory are real climbs. We practise the walk to the station or stop, the slopes and the steps, step by step, on the routes you actually use.

What a programme can look like

These are examples, not real clients. Every programme is planned around the person and what they want to get back to.

Example: up to the Observatory. Starting point: someone who used to walk up through the park to the Royal Observatory for the view, but since a fall has only managed the flat paths at the bottom. What we work on: leg strength, stamina for the steep slope and balance on the way back down, building up a little further each week. The goal: standing at the top looking out over the river again.

Example: the raised walkways in Thamesmead. Starting point: someone living in one of the original Thamesmead blocks who has started to avoid the stairs and walkways down to street level. What we work on: stair practice on the actual stairs, leg strength and balance on ramps and uneven paving. The goal: getting out to the shops and Southmere Lake without relying on others.

Example: Eltham High Street. Starting point: someone who has felt generally unsteady for a while and now takes a taxi for the short trip from home to Eltham High Street. What we work on: walking stamina, balance at kerbs and crossings, and getting on and off the bus. The goal: walking or taking the bus to the High Street and the Eltham Centre again.

Example: the Thames Path after a new hip. Starting point: someone home after a hip replacement who walked along the river from Woolwich most days and wants to get back to it. What we work on: hip strength, moving from crutches to a stick, and building distance along the flat riverside path. The goal: the regular riverside walk again.

Other areas we visit

We also visit older adults at home in nearby Lewisham, Bromley, Bexley, Tower Hamlets, Newham and Barking and Dagenham, and across the rest of London, with no travel charge.