April is Occupational Therapy Month! Do you know how an OT can help your parents – or other older loved ones – remain in their own homes?

They can help determine if the home is safe by evaluating the home to assess skills, abilities, and safety, and make recommendations that meet their needs and other family members. An occupational therapist will also evaluate your loved ones ability to get around in the community to get groceries, go to doctor appointments, attend religious services, participate in social activities, etc., and provide options for doing so.

Occupational Therapists can provide non-intrusive assistance. Recommend simple to complex home modifications, community support groups, options for getting around in the community, and other services that will help your parent continue to do valued activities safely and easily. Evaluate how well your parent is able to do the things he or she wants and needs to do, and provide personalized recommendations to increase safety, ease, and ability now and in the future. Suggestions may include adding adaptive equipment such as grab bars or stair lifts, lowering counter heights, adding railings, replacing door knobs with lever style handles, widening doorways, etc.

If you’re looking for ways to modify the home and on a fixed-budget an OT can suggest low-cost equipment and other changes (e.g., increase wattage or change the type of fixture for better lighting or reduced glare, use a reacher to avoid bending over or standing on a stool, use the microwave and not the stove to reduce fire hazards, etc.). An occupational therapist will also provide training on adaptive equipment and address any concerns to be sure it will be used.

Have you hugged an Occupational Therapist today?

Retirement living and aging in place are almost synonymous with Arizona and Florida. So, how many of their cities made it into the recently released Best Cities for Successful Aging Index from the Miliken Institute? Just one.

Looking at 78 factors that most affect seniors’ quality of life, including health care, crime rates and weather as well as economic and job conditions, housing, transportation, and social engagement factors that help create a safe, affordable and connected community for seniors Provo, Utah earned the number one spot for large metro areas.

Provo scored high in a wealth of factors: its active, healthy lifestyle (the fewest fast-food outlets per capita); a No. 1 ranking in growth of small businesses; seven medical centers in the area, three of them magnet hospitals; and one of the highest numbers of volunteers per capita.

The top-ranking smaller city, Sioux Falls, S.D., has hospitals that specialize in geriatric services, and its booming economy provides a strong financial base, with the highest employment rate among seniors among the 259 small cities. (Full list at end of article.)

“Cities need to be thinking about how best to make quality of life improvements for our rapidly-growing senior populations ? and such improvements benefit all age groups,” says the Honorable Henry Cisneros, a member of the index’s advisory committee, and the former Secretary U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as the former mayor of San Antonio, Tex. “What the Milken Institute’s index does for the first time is measure communities on the dimensions that matter most for seniors. It is a real breakthrough that will be vitally helpful for leaders in making policies, creating programs, and reshaping communities.”

One common attribute of many of the top-performing cities: the presence of a university. “These communities not only offer intellectual stimulation for seniors,” explains Milken Institute Economist Anusuya Chatterjee, co-author of the report with Ross DeVol, chief research officer. “Many also have top-notch university-affiliated hospitals that provide cutting-edge health care.”

The goal of the index is to encourage and promote best practices in how U.S. communities serve aging Americans.

The Top 10 large and small metropolitan areas are: