Absolutely.
Supporting older adults who are choosing to stay home is an area that I have practised in for the majority of my career. Most older adults I meet want to be there.
You're going into the home. You're meeting with the individual in their space where they want to be. You're conducting an environmental assessment and looking at the risk factors and analyzing what is going on in the home. Not everybody lives in single-floor, accessibly designed or universally designed spaces. In fact, for most spaces, we're looking at some type of retrofit, which may be putting in adaptive equipment, say, in the high-risk areas for falls. That would be in bathrooms, kitchens and bedrooms.
For some, we're looking at even more significant architectural renovations if people want to stay in their homes. A lot of homes have stairs. They might require stair glides or some other type of system of modification to make entry accessible. Again, we're looking at universal design principles. You can do that with equipment. There's a piece around getting equipment. Outside of the assessment itself, you're looking for funding to put into place the equipment and recommendations that might be needed for that individual.
There's also education that can happen. For some of that, staying home in place can be around safety to live well at home.
By and large, my experience in that population is that there's a combination of education, equipment and some more significant architectural considerations that need to happen and to be thought about for homes that people are living in.