Home Safety Evaluations
Performed by licensed occupational therapists and Certified Aging-in-Place Specialists.
A home safety evaluation is a licensed clinician walking your home with you, watching how you actually move through it, and telling you plainly what to change first.
It is the same assessment hospitals rely on before sending someone home, done in the place where it matters instead of in a hallway with a clipboard. It takes about an hour, and it is free with any installation.
What gets looked at
- Real transfers, watched rather than described — bed, toilet, tub or shower, chair, and car
- Lighting, glare, switch placement, and the nighttime path to the bathroom
- Flooring, rugs, thresholds, cords, and the transitions between surfaces
- Stairs, handrails, entry steps, and how a walker or rollator gets through the front door
- Equipment fit — walker height, shower chair, raised seat, reacher, and whether what you own is actually being used
- Reach and storage: what has moved to a shelf that now requires a step stool
- The kitchen and laundry, where carrying something with both hands removes every handhold
Who performs it
A licensed occupational therapist or a Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist — the same credentials hospitals and home health agencies use for discharge planning.
What you receive
A written report with photos and a prioritized list: what to fix today, what can wait, and what costs nothing at all.
Who else gets it
With your permission, a copy goes to your family, your discharge planner, or your home health team so everyone is working from the same list.
Room by room
Entry. The step, the threshold, the screen door that swings back, and whether a package can be carried in without letting go of the rail.
Hallways. The unsupported stretch between the bedroom and the bathroom, walked at 3 a.m. in low light. This is where rails and nightlights earn their keep.
Bathroom. Tub or shower entry, the sit-to-stand at the toilet, and everything currently being used as a handhold that should not be.
Bedroom. Bed height, the reach to the lamp, the path around the footboard, and whether a pole or bed rail would help at the moment of standing.
Stairs. Rail continuity, rail graspability, the top and bottom steps, and lighting at both ends.
Kitchen and laundry. What has migrated to a high shelf, and where both hands get occupied carrying something heavy.
Coming home from the hospital or rehab
Discharges get priority scheduling. If you tell us the discharge date, we will do our best to have the bathroom ready before the car pulls into the driveway — that first week home is when the risk is highest and when the household is least prepared. We can also coordinate directly with a discharge planner or home health therapist and send them photos of the finished work.
What it costs, and what it is not
The evaluation is free with any installation. As a standalone visit with a written report, it is quoted before we come out.
It is not a sales appointment. The report regularly recommends things we do not sell — moving a rug, changing a bulb, lowering a shelf, asking a doctor about a medication that affects balance — and it regularly recommends fewer bars than the family expected. An assessment that always concludes “you need everything we sell” would not be worth doing.
What happens during a home safety evaluation?
An occupational therapist or Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist walks the home with you, watches your real transfers — bed, toilet, shower, chair, car — and reviews lighting, flooring, thresholds, and your path to the bathroom at night. You get a written report with photos and a prioritized list.
Is the evaluation a sales pitch?
No. The report routinely recommends things we do not sell, including free changes like moving a rug or adding a nightlight. If the honest answer is that you need one bar and nothing else, that is what the report says.
Can you work with my home health agency or discharge planner?
Yes, with your permission. We regularly coordinate with case managers, discharge planners, and home health therapists, and we can send them a copy of the report and photos of the finished install.
One bathroom fall can change everything.
Most of our installs are done in a single visit, often within the same week. Call now or request a time that works for your family.