For her class Organizational and Professional Issues II, Master in Occupational Therapy student Alexandria Moriarty researched a topic related to her interest in geriatric occupational therapy.
Her specific interest is “in the ability of older adults to age in place in their current homes while remaining independent and engaged in their community and valued occupations,” she explained.
So Moriarty “explored the impact of home modifications from the perspectives of community-dwelling older adults who used them,” according to the abstract for the project presented at the Celebration of Scholarship and Creativity on April 18.
“There was not a lot of literature surrounding the perceived impact from the client’s perspective, which is an important tenet of occupational therapy,” she said.
In addition to helping build relationships with clients, Moriarty also looked at home evaluation and intervention that occupational therapists consider “to enable safe, independent aging in place.”
She found that “older adults perceived home modifications to be beneficial, especially in providing aspects of safety, the ability to perform basic [activities-of-daily-living] tasks in the home, and the meaning of the home. The home had so much meaning attached to it, and when paired with modifications, it allowed them to live as independently as possible.”
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