Modifying one's home is an important strategy to manage chronic health care conditions, increase independence, and ensure safety of older adults. However, in many areas of the country the lack of specialists make home modifications difficult to obtain. The purpose of this project is to develop an innovative electronic database that provides comprehensive, detailed information about both functional/activity limitations and technological and environmental modifications in order to match individual needs to appropriate modifications. This new product will provide sufficient information to enhance the capacity of rehabilitation and building professionals throughout the country, many of whom lack specific knowledge of home modifications, to provide home modification services that will enable older adults to age in place. In Phase 1 a review of existing databases will be used to develop a working prototype of the database. The prototype will be pretested in 10 homes to assess its feasibility in terms of 1) inter-rater reliability among users; 2) concurrence between solutions based on the database and those recommended by a specialist; and 3) user satisfaction. Phase 2 of the project will develop and test instructional materials to accompany the database; complete database development; and demonstrate the effectiveness of the database.
The planned database will have broad appeal to case managers, occupational therapists and other providers of aging services, as well as contractors, remodelers and designers who currently are aware of the role of modifications, but who lack the expertise to accurately identify problems and effective solutions. The protocol will enhance the capacity of these professionals to prescribe and/or provide appropriate modifications that will enable older individuals to age in place.
