Using Remote Assessment to Provide Home Modification Services to Underserved Elders

Abstract

The need for home-modification services, particularly in rural areas, far exceeds the capacity of specialists to provide them. Our findings suggest that remote assessments can potentially be used to identify mobility and safety problems in the home as well as to recommend solutions to those problems. As a result, remote home assessment has the potential to provide underserved elders with access to home-modification services that have heretofore eluded them.

The Effects of In‐Home Rehabilitation on Task Self‐Efficacy in Mobility‐Impaired Adults: A Randomized Clinical Trial

“…9,31 In-home video teleconferencing has also been used successfully for OT home assessments and to treat ADL task performance. [32][33][34][35][36] However, none of the prior studies examined the effects of OT/PT interventions on task self-efficacy. Many studies did not use teletechnologies, or if they did, they did not examine multiple mobility and transfer tasks or use the full range of OT/PT interventions that would be used in traditional inhome rehabilitation.…”

Home and Community Environmental Features, Activity Performance, and Community Participation among Older Adults with Functional Limitations

“…CASPAR was chosen because it associates demand-producing environmental attributes (which could be barriers or facilitators) with actual activity performance [28, 32]. In contrast, other existing home assessment instruments that compare environmental attributes to performance, such as the housing enabler [33], focus on environmental barriers and not assess actual performance.…”

Environmental Evaluations and Modifications to Support Aging at Home With a Developmental Disability

“…The assessment instruments that were reviewed and used include: The Gerontologic Environmental Modification Assessment Forms, developed by Rosemary Bakker at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. This instrument was developed for elders who are undergoing the normal process of aging, with the goal of improving home safety (Robinson, 2001); the Telerehabilitation Housing Assessment Tool (Sanford & Butterfield, 2005), a comprehensive housing inventory; the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC, 1996(CMHC, -2008 Assessment form: Maintaining Seniors' Independence Through Home Adaptations, which was developed to enable frail older people to undertake daily activities more independently; and the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging Housing Department Occupational Therapy Evaluation (Klein, 2000). The final instrument has not been standardized.…”