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The Falls Exercise Prevention Programme for older people was introduced as a new project for North Bradford Primary Care Trust in 2002. The introduction of this new service was in response to an identified need to help reduce the incidence of falls, reduce serious injuries as a result of falling, and help improve and maintain the quality of life for those older people who had been identified as having had a fall or being at high risk of falling. The service was not established to be a front line service but to be incorporated into the falls referral pathway. The exercises undertaken are all evidence based and proven to be effective with this population. However, the Group promotes other aspects of quality of life for older people and promotes a holistic approach including health promotion and education. The group has now expanded to incorporate a ‘Walking for Health’ project; a ‘Walk From Home’ project and a ‘Buddy‐Up’ system. The Group is continually growing and future plans are to incorporate ‘Walks for Fallers’. Evaluation of the service provides information to continually improve and extend the services on offer.

Many individual and family hardships are associated with poorly understood palliative care needs arising from advanced dementia within India. The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of people in India affected by advanced dementia and to shape educational approaches for practitioners and the local community.

Three focus groups with family carers of people (n = 27) with advanced dementia were undertaken with local communities in South India. One focus group was carried out in English and two in the local language (Kannada) and translated to English.

The findings of the focus groups are presented in four themes, conditions of caring, intersecting vulnerabilities, desperate acts of care and awareness of education and training needs. These themes highlight the challenges faced by family carers of people with advanced dementia and describe the potential harm, abuse and poor mental well-being facing both the person with dementia and the family carer as a result of their situation.

There is a need to explore ways to ensure inclusivity and sensitivity in the research process and enable equal participation from all participants.

The findings highlight a lack of support for family carers of people with advanced dementia and demonstrate the need for dementia-specific integrated and palliative care approaches in India.

This paper provides insight into the experiences and challenges facing family caregivers of people living with advanced dementia in India to shape practitioner education in a way that will underpin effective dementia-specific palliation and integrated services.