Hopkins Hour - Surviving or thriving? Client perspectives of valuable home-modifications outcomes

Thank you to everyone who joined the virtual Hopkins Hour live event on Wednesday 12th October, 2022, titled "Surviving or thriving? Client perspectives of valuable home-modifications outcomes".

In this session, Hopkins researchers Coral Gillett, Dr Connie Allen, Dr Camila Shirota and Soo Oh, presented the findings from a study that aimed to find out what people requiring home modifications and their families (clients) value in home modifications and how they understand value for money.

About the presenters:

  • Coral Gillett – senior research assistant at The Hopkins Centre,  
  • Connie Allen – research fellow at The Hopkins Centre. Coral and Connie will be presenting on their recent research into Home Modifications, including what people requiring home modifications and their families value and how they understand value for money. They will also be discussing the Survive – Strive – Thrive theory, which describes what clients see as valuable & identifies different aspects of the Home Modification process that can either help or hinder end-users in arriving at valuable outcomes. 
  • Camila Shirota Advanced Queensland Fellow and project lead of one of The Hopkins Centre’s Flagship initiatives, HabITec, and  
  • Soo Oh – Occupational Therapist & Project Manager in The HabITec Lab. Camilla and Soo will discuss HabITec’s Home to Hospital project and how it relates to the Survive – Strive – Thrive theory, including it’s potential for increasing client involvement in the Home Modification process.  

The presenters were also joined by 3 panelists:

  • Perry Cross AM is the executive president and founder of the Perry Cross Spinal Research Foundation, he is also the CEO and Founding Director of Accessible Homes Australia, an NDIS registered provider of Specialist Disability Accommodation. Perry has been heralded by media worldwide as a tremendous role model for the human spirit in overcoming the odds and was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2020 for significant service to people living with a spinal cord injury and as a role model for the community. 
  • Hannah Gawne is a Disability researcher and advocate, with her own lived experience of disability. Hannah has a passion for making a positive impact in the world, with research professional background with an Honours in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.  
  • Jamie Matveyeff is a senior Occupational Therapist with a passion for integrating assistive technologies and innovative design into the built environment to maximise security, safety, and independence for consumers. He has over 20 years experience in a wide variety of acute and community health settings – across both Australian and British healthcare systems and he one of the founders of Your Choice OT Home Modification Services.  

Value for money is a critical factor in many home modification schemes, however there is an identified lack of clear and consistent frameworks for determining value for money when prescribing home modifications. In this session, the Coral and Connie discussed the fundamental challenges with finding value for money in home modifications and introduced the Survive-strive-thrive theory of home modification outcomes, barriers and enablers. They also discussed implications for policy and practice.

This was followed by a short panel discussion on the theory from those with lived experience of the home modification process.

Camilla and Soo then presented on the Home to Hospital project, reflecting on the clinical problem they faced, and the unique solutions they have created in order to overcome these. This presentation was also followed by another short panel discussion and audience Q & A time.

 

You can find out more about these projects here:

Valuing Home Modifications: The Street Level Policy Work of Occupational Therapists in Australian Home Modification. 

 

 

If you missed the live event, you can view the video recording below, along with other accessible event resources shared:

 

Download the PowerPoint slides from the presentation HERE.

Back to Articles

Comments