Drawing on the evidence and recommendations within RCOT’s Building Health into Homes Strategic Report, this session explores what a more preventative approach looks like in practice. Using toileting as an example, the talk considers why assessment and specification should look beyond immediate needs to anticipate how a person's requirements may change over time. It also explores how adaptable solutions can help preserve independence and dignity and potentially reduce future intervention and reliance on care.

This session will explore the relationship between housing, health and independence, and why a preventative approach requires OTs to consider not only what a person needs today, but how their needs may change over time.

 

Drawing on the evidence and recommendations within RCOT’s Building Health into Homes Strategic Report, the talk will consider how designing, adapting and specifying around both current and anticipated occupational needs can help maintain independence for longer and potentially reduce the need for future intervention and reliance on care.

 

Toileting will be used as a practical example. Rather than waiting until someone can no longer manage conventional toileting, the session will explore when wash and dry toileting could be considered earlier and, importantly, how adaptable solutions can respond as a person's needs change.

 

The discussion will encourage OTs to ask: are we specifying simply for what someone needs today, or considering what they may need tomorrow?