1. Sorcinelli, A., MScOT (Candidate); Cooper, K. MScOT (Candidate); Shaw, L, PhD (Candidate) School of Occupational Therapy, The University of Western Ontario The Safe Living Guide: A guide to Home safety for seniors Senior-provider Collaboration Senior Self-evaluation Acknowledgements. This contract was funded by Health Canada/Veterans Affairs Canada Falls Prevention Initiative. For more information contact Lynn, leshaw@uwo.ca Objectives To evaluate seniors use of the guide to correct hazards To evaluate the reliability of the checklist the design of the guide and its compatibility to meet the needs of seniors To provide recommendations to Health Canada on potential revisions to the SLG The Safe Living Guide: A guide to home safety for seniors is a self-assessment tool, which prompts seniors to inspect their homes for potential hazards and correct safety problems. This guide is unique from other tools in that it was designed to enable seniors to identify and correct hazards without the expertise of a professional. However, this tool can also be used in collaboration with a professional or a member of the community. Design A two phase study design was used to evaluate The Safe Living Guide. First, home visits were used to compare 42 seniors ratings with 42 therapist raters to determine the reliability of items in the checklist. Second a telephone survey was completed with 78+ seniors to examine the utility of the guide in helping seniors identify and correct hazards. Recruitment Seniors were recruited from five provinces (Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, PEI and Alberta) using convenience and snowball sampling. Home visits were conducted by student therapists. Participants Seniors ranged in age from 55-91. Average of participants 67 years of age. Results–Reliability of Checklist items Inter-rater reliability of therapists was 0.65 prior to home visits. For the majority of items on the home hazard checklist the inter- rater reliability was substantial or or excellent. The overall Kappa measure of the inter-rater agreement was 0.509. Hazard identification: Seniors identified most hazards in the kitchen, bathroom and inside the home. A comparison of the types and number of hazards suggest that seniors and therapist identified the same number of hazards in most areas of the home with a few exceptions. In phase one of the study therapists identified more hazards in the bathroom[t (82)= 2.25, p<.05] and in the bedroom. [t (82)= 2.96, p<.05]. Overall therapists identified an average of 15.2 hazards per home while seniors identified 12.5 hazards per home. In phase two of the study seniors who completed the telephone survey only identified an average of 9.2 hazards per home. Seniors 55-59 identified significantly more hazards overall as well as significantly more potential hazards in the bathroom than seniors in the 70-79 age group and the 80+group. Implications for Using Guide Seniors can use the guide to self-evaluate hazards or seniors can use the guide in collaboration with community partners to identify and correct potential hazards in the home. Seniors strongly agreed that the guide can assist seniors in correcting hazards and making modifications to improve home safety. The layout and design of the guide (2003) is compatible with the needs of seniors. Future Enhancements: The overall reliability of items in the checklist can be improved through the use of qualifiers on items to improve the consistency in which items are defined and interpreted. Specific areas for improvement were identification of tripping hazards on stairs, fall hazards in the bedroom, storage of flammable items as well as more suggestions for removing tripping hazards in the home.