Date of Award

4-2023

Degree Type

Capstone Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD)

Department

Occupational Therapy

First Advisor

Judy Morris

Second Advisor

Holly Grieves

Abstract

Disability Advocates of Kent County (DAKC) is a non-profit organization with an occupational therapy (OT) department that aims to keep primarily community-dwelling, low-income, older adults safe and independent in their home. The organization provides home assessments which identifies the barriers and supports for daily activities within the home. After the home assessment evaluation, adaptive equipment and/or home modification recommendations are provided. Literature supports the restorative approach DAKC uses to facilitate aging in place. There was a lack of quantitative and qualitative evidence on how consumers were aging in place post-intervention. This capstone project focused on creating a pilot follow-up program which was utilized with Senior Millage 405 consumers. Questions and use of the EQ-5D-3L covered five follow-up areas including equipment/home modification usage, recurring falls, general health and well-being, performance in ADLs/IADLs, and additional feedback of services. Results indicated consumers had less problems with self-care tasks and overall positive feedback of services provided. The follow-up program will expand to all consumers with the future addition of the EQ-5D-3L in evaluation for future pre-post intervention data analyses. This is the start of gathering more evidence on how consumers are aging in place successfully in Kent County and continuing barriers that need to be addressed.

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