Home Modifications for Cognitive Decline

A unique role of occupational therapy is to ensure home safety and allow patients to remain independent with activities of daily living in their home setting. In every environment that an occupational therapist or occupational therapy assistant treats, home safety recommendations are provided. Current evidence documents that a home safety assessment reduces falls by 36% (Lee et al., 2025). A common frustration for occupational therapists and assistants is motivating patients and caregivers to adopt home safety recommendations despite their documented effectiveness. In a world where technology is constantly changing and patients are more medically complex and cognitively impaired, looking beyond the standard home safety recommendationsis required.

A nuance that frequently leaves occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants searching for more information is how to provide succinct and effective caregiver training for buy-in and follow-through, particularly when caregivers are caring at a distance. This course will provide evidence-based evaluations to assist in identifying home safety concerns and evidence-based recommendations for home modifications that will allow a cognitively impaired patient to perform ADLs with independence and age in place. Additionally, strategies for successful caregiver education/training on home safety modifications will behighlighted.

Target Audience: Occupational Therapists, Occupational Therapy Assistants

Highlights

• Immediately improve your patient's home safety via evidence-based assessments to identify problem areas and build a toolbox of home modification recommendations to helpa patient with cognitive decline remain independent
• Apply evidence-based recommendations for caregiver training success and ability for the caregiver to care from a distance for a patient with cognitive decline