Abstract
Despite the effectiveness of occupational therapy home modification interventions, persons with disabilities may not receive them due to service delivery costs, limited number of therapists, and expansive geographic service areas. The need for occupational therapy home modification interventions will increase with the rising U.S. aging population, incidence of chronic illness, and shift toward community-based care. This study examined the feasibility of telehealth occupational therapy home modification interventions using participant owned smart phones, tablets, or computers. A pretest posttest design (n=4) demonstrated improvement in home safety and perception of performance of daily activities. Participants reported satisfaction with the mode of intervention citing ease of use and reduction in client and caregiver burden. Two key implementation challenges were (1) inconsistent quality of synchronous audio and video and (2) limited funding for home modification interventions. A large-scale telehealth occupational therapy home modification interventions pilot study is warranted.
Highlights
Despite the effectiveness of occupational therapy home modification interventions, persons with disabilities may not receive them due to service delivery costs, limited number of therapists, and expansive geographic service areas
The need for occupational therapy home modification interventions will increase with the rising U.S aging population, incidence of chronic illness, and shift toward community-based care
This study examined the feasibility of telehealth occupational therapy home modification interventions using participant owned smart phones, tablets, or computers
Summary
Despite the effectiveness of occupational therapy home modification interventions, persons with disabilities may not receive them due to service delivery costs, limited number of therapists, and expansive geographic service areas. The need for occupational therapy home modification interventions will increase with the rising U.S aging population, incidence of chronic illness, and shift toward community-based care. There is a growing demand for occupational therapy home modification services in the United States due to the aging population (Ortman, Velkoff, & Hogan, 2014), rising incidence of chronic illness (Thorpe & Howard, 2006), and a shift toward providing community-based services to enable people to live at home instead of in a nursing home With the increase in number of older adults and disability rates, there has been an increase in community-based care to enable these individuals to continue to live at home. This trend is often referred to as aging in place. Bathroom tasks are the most difficult for persons with disabilities and pose more safety concerns
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