OT Assessment for Elderly – Home Safety for Aging in Place.
Occupational Therapists, shortened to OT, essentially promote health, well-being, and personal participation in the elderly person’s life.
They focus on the things they want and need to do in their daily life. In other words, their ability to participate in the important activities in their life.
This includes any meaningful activity that an elderly person wants to accomplish, including taking care of themself (showering, shopping, domestic duties, etc.), going to church, or their community group, going for walks, or sitting on the back porch with a cup of joe.
They use a range of assessment tools in their practice to determine an elderly person’s baseline data including their ability to function during these daily activities and also in this instance, the home they live in.
In terms of a home safety assessment, they use a tool known as: the home safety self-assessment tool (HSSAT) to support aging in place.
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How to Create a Safer Home – OT Assessment for Elderly People
To get the best understanding of what is needed, referring your aging loved one to an occupational therapist (OT) will help identify the best ways to improve their safety.
An OT assessment provides you with a thorough and holistic understanding of your elderly loved one and what risks they face, both in limitations and of their home and their ability.
This is an OT assessment that I have received in my role as case manager (name and details change):
An OT will undertake a holistic assessment which will include the following:
Physical
Home
Falls
Risks
Plan
Strength
Safety
Health
A physical assessment to develop a portrait of the person’s abilities and limitations – covered in more detail below.
An assessment of the home. This includes internally and externally of the home and all areas they use.
A fall risk assessment – to identify if they are a falls risk and what areas of the home which might increase risk of falls.
An assessment of the risks related to moving around the home (stairs, etc.). this might include: steps, loose flooring, lack of rails, clutter.
The implementation of a plan for the necessary adaptations to reduce risks and improve home safety for elderly
Strengthening exercises can be suggested by the occupational therapist to the client
Advice on safe transfers: getting up and down, positional transfers (sitting to standing, etc.)
Whether the condition is caused by an illness or by the loss of autonomy related to aging, the objective is always to promote home care in a context that is as safe as possible.
OTs promote mobility and autonomy to allow elderly to remain at home longer. You may also want to consider physiotherapy.
Individual Assessment
Physical assessment of the individual is essential for understanding the issues, developing prevention strategies to reduce risks of falls, and helping you action these solutions to improve the life of an elderly person in their home.
This is the first step toward home safety for the elderly: Understanding their capacity.
During the assessment of an aging person, the OT will cover the following:
- Mobility and balance: The therapist will observe the individual’s ability to walk, stand, transfer from sitting to standing, and navigate stairs.
- Observing their ability to walk independently, rise from chairs, navigate stairs, and transfer from sitting to standing.
- Use of assistive devices like canes, walkers, or wheelchairs and their proficiency with them.
- Strength and endurance: They will assess the individual’s strength and endurance for performing daily tasks like bathing, dressing, and cooking.
- Vision and hearing: Assessing any vision or hearing impairments that may affect the individual’s safety and ability to navigate their environment.
- Presence of visual impairments impacting safe navigation (cataracts, glaucoma).
- Hearing loss and potential impact on environmental awareness (alarms, approaching people).
- Cognitive function: This may involve assessing the individual’s ability to follow instructions, make decisions, and remember safety procedures when recommended. Do they have cognitive limitations, like dementia, or other memory issues?
- Can they follow instructions and make safe decisions, and remember safety procedures like locking doors, using appliances?
- Is there any presence of confusion, disorientation, or memory issues that could lead to unsafe situations?
OTs will incorporate their medical history and current medical conditions to help determine a holistic portrait, including both physical, like arthritis, and emotional or mental health issues, like depression and anxiety, etc.
This part of the elderly home safety assessment will help you understand their current capacity and start a strategy on how to reduce safety risks and other hurdles that the elderly face in the home.
Daily Activities Assessment
Everyone’s daily activities in the home are different and what might be a hazard for one person, may not be a hazard for another.
This is why an OT will consider the individual daily activities to understand, based on their daily routine, what areas in those activities are posing risks to the individual.
During this assessment the OT will observe the individual performing daily activities like bathing, dressing, preparing meals, and taking medications.
This helps them identify areas where the environment poses challenges or where the individual may need assistance. For example, when preparing meals,
- are they leaving the gas stove on
- are they struggling to turn taps on and off
- are they struggling to hold utensils.
The therapist will also discuss the individual’s routines and preferences to help clarify their preferences.
This personalized approach ensures the recommendations cater to the individual’s specific needs and lifestyle.
Physical Environment Home Assessment
A physical environment in the home safety assessment is the next major step in understanding the issues that might cause risks to navigating the home. It provides an understanding of where you need to focus to improve home safety.
In this step, OTs identify potential hazards and create a strategy on how to improve these hazards to promote safety within the home.
This assessment is quite detailed but covers the following key points.
- Accessibility: This involves checking for areas that may limit mobility, like narrow doorways, uneven floors, or lack of grab bars in bathrooms.
- Lighting: Assessing the adequacy of lighting throughout the home, particularly in stairwells, hallways, and bathrooms, where poor lighting can increase fall risks.
- Fall hazards: Identifying potential tripping hazards like loose rugs, uneven flooring, clutter, or electrical cords.
- Safety features: Checking for existing safety features like smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, and fire extinguishers. Are there any rails currently present, or non-slip rugs in the bathroom.
The idea of a thorough home safety assessment is to create strategies that will reduce the risks around the home and improve the potential of the elderly person being able to stay independent and safe while also being able to continue their daily activities.
Risks for the Elderly Moving Around the Home
Before making any effective changes around the house, it is essential to know the associated risks elderly people face while moving around the house.
Once an OT has created a portrait of the individual, the environment, and their daily activities, they will identify clearly the risks impacting home safety for elderly people.
Risk of Tripping and Falling – The risk of elderly people stumbling and falling can be the cause of multiple factors. These factors can include:
- limited mobility caused by arthritis and weak bones.
- a fall in the bathroom due to slippery floors or inappropriate or lack of equipment and support aids. For example, not using grab bars in the shower.
- Cluttered spaces and the absence of proper lighting can also increase the falls and tripping of elderly people.
- Uneven steps leading into the home
- Stairs to the second floor
- Use of the kitchen and appliances
How to Improve Home Safety for Elderly People
When older adults start facing these common issues as outlined above they outline ways to address them through:
- Support aids – walking frame, shower chair, commode, toilet seat, assistive utensils, electric recliners.
- Home modifications – repair uneven steps, and install grab rails or ramps.
Common Home Safety Tips for Seniors
We all know the saying: prevention is better than a cure, and these general and common safety tips offer ways to prevent a fall or reduce further falls in the future for an elderly person.
The following tips will help you learn ways how to improve elderly people’s daily lives and make changes for improved safety to go through their day safely.
So, let’s look at tips to improve home safety for elderly people.
- Keep pathways clear of clutter and obstacles. This includes electrical cords, appropriate shoes, and furniture.
- Install grab bars in the bathroom. Grab bars can help seniors get in and out of the shower or bathtub safely.
- Use non-slip mats in the bathtub and shower. These mats can help prevent falls.
- Improve lighting throughout the home. This is especially important in stairwells, hallways, and bathrooms.
- Have smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors installed on every floor of your home? Test them regularly and replace the batteries according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
- Keep a fire extinguisher in a readily accessible location.
- Install video cameras. Adding accessories like video doorbells, security cameras, etc to the home to increase home security and help you contact your loved one and give peace of mind to you and them.
- Purchase a falls alarm. A medical alert system or fall detection alarm like a watch or pendant helps elderly people access help in emergencies.
- Ramps. Install ramps at the entrance or rear of the home to remove the need to navigate stairs.
What You Can Do to Create a Safer Home
A physical assessment of an elderly person and their home by OT gives a clear picture of the issues related to potential safety issues around the home based on their abilities. And this will help you to create a safer home for an elderly person.
What happens after an OT assessment:
- The OT will advise you to make various necessary changes and modifications in the home as per the recommendations in their report.
- You and your elderly loved one have the option to implement these changes.
- The OT can help get quotes and purchase items but you can do this yourself if you prefer.
- You will have a greater understanding of what kind of assistive devices an elderly person can use to enhance their safety and comfort.
You can start looking at the best devices by checking out our reviews here.
What the Elderly Person Can Do
By taking a few simple steps and paying attention to the elderly home safety assessment, senior citizens can keep themselves safe in their own homes and live independently.
- Remember to use the modifications implemented like grab rails and non-slip mats.
- Wear your falls alarm and do not leave it on the bedside table (very common in my experience).
- Take your medicines regularly and on time as per your doctor’s prescription.
- Focus on strengthening your muscles, be physically active, and include exercises recommended by a physiotherapist.
- Accommodate assistive aids or accessories in your lifestyle so you can perform everyday tasks with more ease and comfort.
Products and Support Aids To Improve Safety
The following aids can help maintain daily activities and improve home safety for the elderly. Let’s consider specific products and supporting aids that can help you deal with age-related issues safely.
Bathroom Aids – Elderly people face many problems when undertaking their personal hygiene as the bathroom is both wet and slippery. The bathroom for them is a high-risk area for falls and injuries.
Here are some bathroom aids that can help an elderly person perform bathroom tasks.
- Shower chairs – A Shower chair can help you shower with stability, reducing the risk of falling or slipping while showering. The shower chair by Healthline is a must-have.
- Grab bars – As the name suggests, these bars are meant for holding. These safety grab bars help you maintain balance and your weight while performing tasks in the shower.
- Non-slip bath mats – This is another safety measure for the elderly as this mat reduces the risk of falls while providing a sturdy grip on slippery bathroom surfaces.
- Toilet Seat Safety Rails – These rails assist in sitting and getting up from the toilet seat. Relying less on knees and weakened core muscles.
Bedroom and Living Area Aids – Bedroom and living area support aids help you with various daily tasks. Initially, it may seem that these support aids are not essential, but aids can improve simple daily activities like watching TV, or going to bed.
- Recliners – Electric recliners assist the elderly with getting up from a chair with its motor.
- Bed – A new hospital-like bed, can reduce the strain entering a bed and allow for the head to be raised for better comfort. The beds can also include railing to stop falls.
- Walking Frame – mobilizing can be safer with a frame to assist in navigating around the home. This is often an essential item to purchase for many elderly people.
Kitchen Aids – With the help of kitchen aids, elderly people can comfortably perform daily kitchen-related tasks. Requirements for specific kitchen equipment may vary depending on what type of physical issues they face. But here are some common useful supporting kitchen tools for you.
- Universal Jar Opener – A useful tool for elderly people who have arthritis or limited dexterity. This jar opener helps older adults to open all types of lids or jars with ease.
- Perching stool – The use of this stool is in between the two positions as it provides a semi-sitting position. With its help, you can avoid leg and back pain caused by standing for long periods or knee pain allowing your loved one to continue cooking and having access to a seat.
- Facets – Often with weakened dexterity it becomes harder to turn taps on and off. Replacing the taps with a facet greatly improves their ability to use water in the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry.
Smart Gadgets for Elderly – The benefits of smart gadgets for elderly people is becoming an increasingly important approach to supporting seniors in their homes.
Smart tech includes everything from home security to medical assistance, and connecting with others within the home.
- Medical Alert System – It is necessary to have a medical alert system for the elderly. It provides 24/7 medical monitoring services, which provide quick assistance in emergencies. Almost every medical alert system comes with fall detection and other necessary safety features.
- Motion-Sensing Lighting – The motion-sensing lighting is essential for nighttime safety as it turns on automatically when motion is detected. You can use it in hallways, stairways, and bathrooms to reduce the risks of falls and injuries during nighttime toilet breaks.
- Smart Doorbells – The smart doorbell is a must-have for added home security. It provides convenience and peace of mind to the elderly dealing with limited mobility or other physical issues, as you can see who is at the door while sitting inside. With increasing scams at present, this could be a good option to help you reduce the risks of being scammed.
Automatic Pill Organizer – With increasing age, it can become increasingly harder to remember what pills to take and when. As many elderly people can have dozens of medications to take at different times of the day. Hence, medication management can be difficult for the elderly and hard for a carer to manage, especially if you don’t live with them. Automatic pill dispensers work as a way to support this issue. With the help of this, you can set your medication schedule, avoid medicine mixups, set the dosage, and store multiple types of medication in a single dispenser.
Ramps – The sole purpose of ramps in the home is to improve the mobility capabilities and safety of the elderly. Installing ramps can improve the elderly’s ability to navigate the home while using a walker, a wheelchair, or other mobility aids. The use of a ramp provides a safer and more stable surface reducing the risk of falls and injuries.
Final Thoughts: Supporting Their Independence with Love
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We understand the deep love and concern you have for your aging loved ones. Creating a safe and comfortable home environment is a thoughtful and proactive way to support their independence and well-being. Remember, even small changes can make a significant difference.
Taking these steps doesn’t mean taking away their autonomy – it’s about offering gentle support and peace of mind for everyone involved. Knowing they are in a safe environment allows them to continue living life to the fullest while giving you the comfort of knowing you’ve done your part. Embrace these changes as a collaborative effort, working together to create a space that fosters both safety and a sense of home.
For additional resources and support, don’t hesitate to explore the helpful links and organizations dedicated to senior care. You are not alone in this journey, and there are countless resources available to assist you in creating a loving and supportive environment for your loved ones.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
I’m worried about making changes to my loved one’s home. Will it take away their independence?
Many have shared your concerns. Making changes to their environment can feel intrusive. However, the goal is to support their independence by minimizing safety risks. These modifications allow them to continue living their lives comfortably and confidently, knowing their home is a safe space.
How can I discuss these changes with my loved one in a respectful way?
Collaboration is key. Approach the conversation with empathy and understanding. Listen to their concerns and preferences. Frame the changes as a way to enhance their safety and well-being while allowing them to maintain their autonomy as much as possible. Emphasize you’re wanting to help maintain their independence to staying living in their home.
Where can I find additional resources and support?
You are not alone in this journey! Numerous resources and organizations are dedicated to supporting caregivers and seniors. The article mentions exploring helpful links and contacting organizations specializing in senior care. You might want to check out Embracing Carers for more information.
Additionally, you can search online or ask your doctor for recommendations.
What are some additional ways I can support my loved one’s independence?
Beyond creating a safe home environment, here are some additional ways to support your loved one’s independence:
Encourage their continued engagement in activities they enjoy.
Respect their choices and decisions whenever possible.
Offer support and assistance when needed, but avoid taking over completely.
Communicate openly and honestly, fostering trust and understanding.
How can I take care of myself while caring for my loved one?
Caring for a loved one can be demanding. Remember to prioritize your own well-being as well. Make time for activities you enjoy, seek support from others, and don’t hesitate to ask for help when you need it.
How can I take care of myself while caring for my loved one?
Caring for a loved one can be demanding. Remember to prioritize your own well-being as well. Make time for activities you enjoy, seek support from others, and don’t hesitate to ask for help when you need it.
By taking care of yourself, you’ll be better equipped to care for your loved one with love and compassion.