Our final topic for the #OTweek2022 is Home Modifications. Julie, our OT in Cairns, will take us through some of her experience with modifications and assessments.
What does ‘home’ mean to you?
Is it a place you long to return to after a hard day at work? A place you can work, rest and play with your children, pets and loved ones? Is it a place where you feel free, comfortable, safe and confident to do things you want and need to do every day? Is it a place with a lifetime of sentimental memories you don’t want to part from?
But what if, through injury, disability or age-related decline, basic tasks that we take for granted, like leaving our front door to check the mailbox or getting into the shower became highly risky or simply unachievable? What if you became ‘a prisoner’ in your own home? (Yes, this is a common descriptor people use when the home mods process begins).
Enter the OT…
OTs are trained to look holistically at “the person” “the occupation” and “the environment”. We assess a person’s functional skills, identify what is important and meaningful to them and problem solve ways to connect “the person” “the occupation” and the “environment” to support their ongoing safety and independence at home. In the case of home modifications, this involves liaising with the person (and/or their family and carers) and the builder to determine what will be the most appropriate change to the home environment to compensate for impaired or lost physical and sensory skills to support a person to remain as safe and independent as possible. Home modifications can be anything from simple and removable aids such as a rubber ramp or easily fixed grab rail or far more complex such as a ceiling mounted hoist, a platform lift, designing wet-area bathrooms or multi-staged ramps.
Consider the following:
- Minor modifications such a simple (vertical) grab rail to support the elderly woman’s balance as she mobilises across a small shower hob can make such a meaningful difference to their life.
- A custom-made ramp with handrails and kick boards plus re-swinging the front door creates a smooth transition out of the house for a demented woman to promote better community engagement (with carers).
- A platform lift helps the person with a motor neurone disease living in an ‘Old Queenslander’ to continue living in the home they raised their children in.
- An automatic sliding door supports a wheelchair dependent person with a neurological impairment to come and go from their home freely and easily.
- A spare room/office modified into a wet-area bathroom future proofs the person with MND (with an existing small/tight bathroom) as they become progressively more dependent on bulky mobility/self-care aids.
- Home automation and environment control units through hard wired or Wifi capability gives the Quadraplegic person more freedom to control and engage with their surroundings.
- Reconfiguring a kitchen to include an accessible kitchen bench enables the woman with progressive Parkinson’s Disease to make her daily coffee independently.
These are some examples from my own clinical experience over the past few years. This can be a challenging field of work, often with a heavy workload of report writing and justifying the need for each component of the modification. It requires the production of detailed diagrams evidencing that your solution is the best fit and most cost-effective solution. This process can influence many back-and-forth face-to-face, phone and communications with clients, stakeholders and builders. OTs need to do further training to engage in complex mods that impact the structure of the home.
It can often be a long and very stressful process BUT getting the good news that an application has been approved, followed by then seeing the completed modification is definitely worth the time, effort and stress. Knowing the value and impact these modifications will have on a person’s (and their family’s) life is why we do what we do!
Today concludes the end of OT week. On behalf of the OT team, I hope you have enjoyed our activities and daily emails about what OT means to us and have learnt something interesting or inspiring about our amazing profession.
#OTWEEK2022 #WHATOTMEANSTOME
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