Document Type

Capstone

Abstract

Purpose: The main purpose of this capstone project was to develop an introductory community education for how to prepare and seek out solutions that will enable the aging adult to increase their choices about where they live with age. It targets baby boomers within Durham County, ages 52-70 as they consider retirement, might be recently retired, considering relocation, or caring for loved ones. The secondary purpose of this capstone project was to facilitate increased awareness of how occupational and physical therapists can more routinely educate and provide resources for clients in order to promote productive aging. Procedures: The method for establishing the community education involved the use of research literature, internet research, resources and insight from healthcare professionals in the acute care setting. The education included clarification for the term "aging in place," which means being able to have choices to live and function where we want as we age (Wiles, Leibing, Guberman, Reeve, & Allen, 2011); an understanding of approaches such as regular exercise, good health management, financial planning, home modifications and falls prevention to facilitate independence with age; an explanation of how home modifications, and proper home assessments by occupational therapists can impact aging in place; and local and global resources to facilitate self-advocacy. To gain insight into acquired information and understanding before the education and after, pre and post surveys were created to go along with the community education. Once the education was developed, it was presented to the Duke adult inpatient acute care physical and occupational therapists for constructive feedback about the community education. In order to understand the therapists' perception and gain qualitative feedback about the community education, data was collected using a "Professional Feedback Survey" to gain insight to the therapists' perception of relevance and possible use with clients as well as gain valuable suggestions and feedback to improve the content of the overall education. Results: Based on the "Professional Feedback Survey," the information was both relevant and valuable to respondents both professionally and personally. Respondents indicated that the community education had valuable content that facilitated an increased awareness of options and resources to promote aging in place. Additionally, respondents identified ways to incorporate education and resources into daily interactions with their clients especially for discharge planning; this supports that the respondents gained an increased awareness for how to incorporate the information in daily interactions with clients. Lastly respondents gave valuable suggestions for improving the content and delivery of the information including being mindful of the reading level of the audience, facilitating more of a discussion format and expanding the audience through an online education. Recommendations: Recommendations for how to move forward would be to offer the education to senior centers in the community using more of a discussion format; as well as online to expand the audience and facilitate increased awareness for actions that can be taken to ensure better aging in place. Offering the education to aging adults in the community, might impact a shift in the mindset of the audience by increasing the awareness of solutions and equipping the aging adult with resources for taking action to ensure they have increased options for aging in place. Additionally, improving the understanding of how occupational therapy can increase function with age to both the client as well as the healthcare providers might lead to increased occupational therapy referrals by healthcare providers and a demand for services on the part of the clients: this can result in greater opportunities for occupational therapists to provide home assessments, facilitate implementation of necessary modifications and contribute to outcome measures that might influence improved reimbursement for occupational therapy services and covered services for the customers. Occupational therapy's success with improving the ability of the aging client to function in their homes with age, places the profession in a position to lead the education and discussion for how to age in place. Ideally an aging in place series presented to the community led by occupational therapists in collaboration with key healthcare professionals can help to promote improved health and safety for aging adults.

Publication Date

2016

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