Partnership with Saint Kate’s Improves our Accessibility Services

We are extremely proud of our partnership with Saint Catherine University’s graduate Occupational Therapy program and Associate Professor Catherine Sullivan.

Through this partnership, we collaborate on service-learning projects that involve graduate occupational therapy (OT) students evaluating the homes of low-income older adults for safety and making recommendations for modifications designed to reduce the risk of falls and other injuries. Our volunteers and/or contractors then make the modifications that are within the scope of our programs. St. Kate’s OT students have completed more than 150 occupational therapy assessments for homeowners in need through this partnership over the last five years.

With the support of the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS), we expanded this partnership in 2014 and 2015 to implement more sophisticated assessment tools and conduct an outcome study, which resulted in the publication of a thesis.  This study shows how in-home environmental modifications can have a statistically significant impact on improving the mobility of older adults throughout his or her community and within the home, reducing the fear of falling, and increasing the satisfaction and level of performance in completing home occupational tasks.

Our collaboration with Professor Sullivan and her students has enabled Rebuilding Together Twin Cities to provide accessibility modifications for low-income seniors that are tailored specifically to their individual needs and home environment.  As a result, we are able to better-serve older adults, allowing them to remain in their homes and neighborhoods for longer.  This partnership has served as a catalyst for us to expand our accessibility modification programs to include larger modifications that facilitate single-level living and aging-in-place.  It has also fundamentally changed how we evaluate our accessibility programs.  We have moved far beyond traditional homeowner satisfaction surveys to a more robust, quantitative pre- and post-project assessment process that can provide statistical data showing the impact of our work.  Professor Sullivan and her students have been an important resource in our efforts to help older adults age-in-place successfully and this collaboration has elevated the level of understanding of this work among our staff, Board members, volunteers, and supporters.

We are grateful to Professor Sullivan and her students and look forward to continuing this partnership!

St. Kate’s Graduate Student Publishes Thesis Showing Impact of Safe at Home Program

We are extremely proud of our long-standing partnership with the Saint Catherine University’s graduate Occupational Therapy program.  This partnership focuses on providing safety and accessibility modifications for low-income homeowners who are older adults or individuals living with a disability, so they can live more safely and independently in their own homes.  Through this partnership, we expanded our evaluation of our Accessibility programs last year and found that our home modification interventions resulted in measurable improvements to the quality of life, safety, independence and overall well-being of both the senior homeowner and their caregivers.  This pilot assessment focused on 15 low-income senior homeowners and used both quantitative and qualitative (primarily interview) tools.

According to the study’s author, Melody Oaks, statistical analysis showed significant improvements in occupational participation in valued daily activities, decreased fear of falling and a decrease in the risk of long-term care placement.  She states, “The positive findings suggest that home modifications involving occupational therapists can improve occupational participation and safety for low-income older adult homeowners. Qualitative results revealed themes of increased independence and accessibility, improved community relationships and occupational activities, and increased hope to remain aging in place.”  She also notes that the home modifications relieved the burden and stress of caregivers.  Bernice, one of the clients in the study who received a ramp, said “I just hop in the wheelchair and buzz down the ramp. There’s no heavy lifting for Scott. [her husband.]”

This study demonstrates the tangible and immediate positive impact on the seniors we were able to serve and their caregivers.

You can read Melody’s entire study here.

2015 Age and Disabilities Odyssey

Last month, Rebuilding Together Twin Cities staff and our friends from St. Catherine University traveled to Duluth for the 2015 Age and Disabilities Odyssey.  Through our partnership with the Occupational Therapy Program at St. Kate’s, we collaborate on service-learning projects that involve graduate occupational therapy (OT) students evaluating the homes of low-income older adults and individuals living with a disability for safety. Students then make recommendations for modifications designed to reduce the risk of falls and other injuries. Our volunteers make the modifications that are within the scope of our programs.  This partnership provides students with a hands-on learning experience that enables them to directly work with low-income clients and provides the homeowners we help with more comprehensive accessibility modification services that are truly tailored to their individual needs.  With the support of a grant from the Minnesota Department of Human Services, we recently expanded our partnership with St. Kate’s to create and implement an assessment tool in order to measure the effectiveness of our services and adjust them, as needed, to better align with the needs of our clients.  The Age and Disabilities Odyssey gave us an opportunity to share some of the findings of our collaborative efforts with a broader audience.

Our Development Officer Brent Suski, who has been instrumental in expanding this partnership, said, “The Odyssey was a great opportunity for Rebuilding Together Twin Cities and St. Catherine University to celebrate and share the great work that we have been doing throughout the Twin Cities to keep homeowners safe and independent in their homes.  We had the opportunity to make many connections with service providers throughout Minnesota.”

We are proud of our partnerships with St. Kate’s and the Minnesota Department of Human Services and look forward to continuing to work together to help low-income homeowners who are older adults or are living with a disability age-in-place successfully and live more safely and independently in their homes!

Thanks To…

Taylor – One of our long-time, dedicated, regular volunteers.  Thanks for being awesome!

Student group from Jennings Community Learning Center in St. Paul, especially instructors Tom Wendt and Zach Fielsted – who partnered with us to start a repair project for a Saint Paul homeowner in need.

Stephanie Lipetzky, Ken Tillges, Taylor Winscher, Tess Cooper, Terza Kurki – for attending our Safe at Home training.

Ken Tillges, Stephanie Lipetzky, Tess Cooper, and Paul Tolzmann – special shout out for being our new Safe at Home volunteers!

Melody Oakes and Anna Krech – Student interns from St. Kate’s helping us to develop an evaluation process for our Access for Always program.

Kristin Weise and Jeff Walker from The Opus Group – special thanks for supporting the projects throughout the day!

RAMP crew – Huge thanks to Armand Peterson, Bill Berschnieder, Paul Parrish, and George Johnson for their help in previewing and designing projects.

MidCountry Bank – Thanks to Greg Krenz, Jim Herbert, Cami Sonnenburg and Branch Managers throughout the MidCountry Bank Network for supporting Brewing, Banking and Bidding to Rebuild Together at Lift Bridge Brewing Company’s Townie Tuesday Event 4/28.