Home Safety Services
Do you or a loved one have
difficulty with:
|
|
Do you or a loved one need:
-
Your home, or a specific room, to be easier and safer to use?
-
A home entrance that is more accessible if health issues arise?
-
To learn how to maintain your independence and safety to remain in your home for life?
- To be assessed for a scooter or power chair?
Don't let age or a change in your health limit your everyday life and threaten your independence to remain in your home. Occupational Therapists uphold the professional standards to help clients achieve independence with activities in their own environments. A home safety evaluation can help you be as safe and independent at home for as long as you choose. Call now for a no-obligation complimentary phone consultation to learn how Adaptive Living can help. 316.390.0772
Our 4 Step Process
Step 1 - A Complimentary No-Obligation Phone Consultation
Our services begin by determining how you or your loved one can benefit from Adaptive Living. If medical issues are limiting one's safety and independence, you may qualify for an OT home safety evaluation covered by insurance. A physician's prescription is required. Otherwise, consultation services are available.
Step 2 - The Interview Process
A personal interview is arranged between you, your loved ones and/or caregivers to determine your specific needs and goals.
Step 3 - Comprehensive OT Evaluations
Physical, sensory, cognitive, functional and leisure activities are assessed as you interact within your home environment.
Strength & Range of Motion
Strength and range of motion assessments are completed to determine such things as appropriate heights to reach for specifically placed grab bars or for retrieving items at higher levels in the kitchen. Balance is assessed for safety and to decrease fall risks within the home. Clients are often trained in home exercise programs to help them increase their physical abilities to maintain their independence and safety.
ADLs
ADLs (Activities of Daily Living) are assessed which include everyday tasks that simply fill up one's time in the day. These areas include dressing, bathing, toileting, eating, grooming, cooking, housekeeping, medication management, money management, grocery shopping and other work or leisure activities to reintegrate back into the community.
Transfers and Mobility
Assessment and training of transfers, or getting on and off of various surfaces, is included in OT. These "surfaces" include typically tub/shower, commode, bed, chair, and vehicle. One's mobility, or technique in which he or she gets around, is assessed throughout the home and community.
Vision
Vision is the primary sensory component assessed to determine one's need for increased or altered lighting. Adaptations are often easy and inexpensive to decrease one's risk of falls. Hearing and sense of touch also assessed.
Cognitive assessments determine one's needs for changes within the home environment to ensure safety and to achieve tasks at a highest level of independence. Solutions may include written reminders, a picture graph of how to complete a task, or assistive technology to alert others of wandering, to name a few.
Environmental Analysis
There is not one home alike, nor is their one person's abilities alike and how they interact in their environment. A determination of potential hazards is identified as they can limit one's safety. A full environmental assessment can be completed to analyze what changes are necessary to incorporate safety and function now and in the future.
Step 4 - Recommendations / Solutions
Recommendations and solutions are provided for you to consider now or in the future. OT treatment includes training and education in the areas necessary to achieve your goals. This may include client and caregiver training, solutions of adaptive equipment, home modifications, assistive technology and universal design.
Many times clients and their families are not aware of what equipment or tools are available to assist with self care, mobility, or safety needs. Recommendations may be equipment such as a bedside commode, tub transfer bench, tub clamp bar, or bed rail to name a few. Each recommendation is based upon specified needs to an individual's abilities and his or her home environments.
Home modifications can be as simple as adding grab bars or widening doorways, but as complex as full home remodels. Whatever one's desires or needs are, Adaptive Living provides recommendations that can be integrated immediately or in years to come. These recommendations are customized to one's needs, with the consideration of aging or illness progression.
Remaining in one's home independently and safely can be made possible through means of home automation, such as motion sensor lighting or automotive doors and windows. Assistive technology, such as health, medication management and fall monitoring systems can be also very beneficial in assisting one to remain in their own home for a lifetime.
Patients and Caregiver Education/Training
One of the single most important things that caregivers can do for their loved ones is to care for themselves first. However, it is far too often seen that the caregiver may not know the most effective and efficient way to provide the safest assistance with their loved one in many areas. Adaptive Living provides these solutions in detail and custom to each individual, with hands-on instruction to the client and caregiver.
Universal design is designing for all ages and abilities. It is meant to incorporate accessibility and function in an aesthetically pleasing environment. This may include modifying a tub/shower unit into a walk-in shower. Specifically, a barrier free walk-in shower has no threshold and is also called a roll-in shower. This is a technique of universal design because it allows any user or any age or ability to be as safe and independent as possible. For example, it is beneficial for a toddler, a teen with a broken arm, an adult with a sprained ankle or with balance limitations, or a person confined to a wheelchair. These techniques may also be known as accessibility or barrier free modifications.
