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My name is Susie Levitsky
and I'm an Occupational Therapist and
a universal design consultant.
I work with people who have
had injuries or illnesses.
We help them as
Occupational Therapists
to be rehabilitated and get back into performing
their functional activities of daily living
that they were doing
prior to their accident or their injury.
I often look at their homes and see how we can
make their home more livable and more enjoyable
and more functional and safe for them
so that they can experience
a nice functional living environment
and they can function on an everyday basis independently
or as independently as they can,
based on their illness or injury.
Our population's aging in general
and because the population is aging,
one of the biggest concerns are for seniors and falls.
And falls tend to be the biggest
concern because they lead to
major injuries such as head injuries,
hip fractures, that can lead ultimately to death.
So what we want to do is we want to try to make
our environments more safe and functional
and livable for people so that they're
eliminating the possibility of those falls.
And the falls can contribute in Canadians
to about 6 percent of injuries every year.
And although our society is aging,
people are more active than they ever have been.
And they don't like to acknowledge sometimes
that they have limitations.
They feel that there is a stigma against being able
to admit that they can't do things
as easily as they were doing before,
or they're having trouble with certain activities
such as taking care of their self-care
or being able to get into a bathtub independently.
People don't like to admit that they have those limitations.
It's better to look like you're doing everything
on your own, and risk a fall,
than to have an environment that's safer for you
because it has that negative social stigma.
People don't always think of limitations
as just being physical limitations.
There are also hearing limitations,
visual limitations as we age.
Our sight and our hearing decreases.
And also, cognitive limitations.
People who are older tend to be more forgetful,
they are possibly leading to diagnosis
of Alzheimer's or other cognitive disabilities.
So we don't always think of a limitation
as just a physical limitation and
decreased physical strength.
We have to look at all of the senses
and how they contribute to our sense of safety
and our sense of being able to
look after ourselves independently.
When we look at changing
an environment to make it more functional,
more safe and easier to use,
we have to keep in mind that everyone is of a different shape,
a different size, a different age.
You've got multi- generations of people
living in a home at one time.
You've got people who are 6'1" and 4'9".
You've got adults and children living together.
You've got elderly parents living in a family
where there are healthier adult children
helping to take care of them. So we have to think that
when we make changes to the environment,
we keep in mind that it's not necessarily
the one person who has limitations
that we're making the changes for.
We have to make the changes
for everyone who is living in that environment.
When we look at homes and how we make these changes,
people tend to think,
Oh, well if I'm going to make it accessible
or barrier-free, it's going to look institutional.
And that's far from the case.
When we look at a person's home,
we take into consideration
what their functional abilities are,
what their needs and goals are,
and what their likes and dislikes
in terms of their decorating tastes are.
And we try to match that up as best possible.
There are so many products that are available,
that are beautiful and functional,
and allow a person to be independent,
and it really makes a statement
when you can go into a home that is completely accessible
and barrier-free and does not have
one tiny piece of equipment
that makes it look as if it's institutional.
You feel like you're walking into a beautiful home,
and that's what you think of first.
You don't think, Oh, someone in this home
has a disability or a limitation.
You think, Wow, what a beautiful home!
And that's our goal - to make it beautiful, functional,
and safe for a person to live and enjoy their home.
When I talk about visit-ability, I speak about
people being able to come
into your home without the worry
that there are barriers.
The bathroom, the kitchen, the dining room, and the front door
are usually the biggest barriers
because you often have steps into the home.
Hallways are too small, so we try to focus on the doorway,
the kitchen, and the bathroom
as the three main areas to expand a home
to increase its visit-ability and allow
other people to come into your home
that wouldn't necessarily be able to come in
because of their own limitations.
If you make the changes to your home
before something traumatic happens
such as a fall, such as a stroke,
such as a heart attack,
that places limitations on a person,
you make the changes before any
of these things happen, looking forward,
then it gives you the opportunity
to make a better decision
about what the changes are going to be.
You're not as rushed, you don't have to worry
about getting things in as quickly,
and then it's more likely to be done
in a haphazard and more institutional way.
If you can make the changes beforehand,
then you can be proactive
in thinking about how you want your environment to be.
So that if there is an accident
or an illness or injury that does happen
along the way then you're all set,
you don't have to worry about
scrambling at the last minute
and putting this all together in a way
that really doesn't work as well for you
as it could if you were proactive.
When you have a living environment
that you enjoy being in,
it actually contributes to your
overall enjoyment of your daily living
and that in turn increases
your health and your overall lifespan.
So if you're living in an environment
that isn't accessible, that isn't working for you,
that's not safe, this is only going
to increase the amount of stress,
and that has an actual detriment
to your overall living, which can affect your health.
captioned by inclusivemedia.ca