• Project Dates: 2004
• Project Leader: Tom Shakespeare, Tom Wakeford
• Sponsors: Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust

This first DIY Jury Project focussed on issues affecting older people and explored issues of health and resources for later life.

The whole process was documented with a video and a handbook to enable other community groups and constituencies to facilitate the running of their own Citizens' Juries in the future.

Download information about the project pilot (PDF: 262 KB).

The project began by inviting older people from around Tyneside to be part of a Steering Group that gradually focussed on the issue of falls and the development of improved health technologies to prevent and treat them.

The Steering Group then recruited a jury of six men and seven women ranging in age from early 20s to late 60s, and of multiple ethic and economic backgrounds.

They then invited the witnesses who addressed the jury at six hearings between October and November 2002. The Jury's final verdict was reached at a session held on 6th January 2003.

The project itself recommended a number of developments, for example:

• the development of a multidisciplinary 'falls pathway unit', to be based within local hospitals, to co-ordinate and deliver the care given to older people prone to falls
• more integration of elderly people's community support groups into mainstream NHS and social services
• better training for medical practitioners and care home staff in the needs of elderly people
• regular reviews of elderly people's home circumstances by social services staff
• better communication of the services and benefits available to elderly people