New housing tool set to improve life for older people

New housing tool set to improve life for older people. A new housing design tool, which will help improve the quality of life for older people in the UK, has been launched by researchers at the University of Sheffield this week (21 September 2010). The EVOLVE evaluation tool, which has been funded by the Economic and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), can be used to assess how well a building contributes to both the physical support of older people and their personal well-being. The project was based upon research into extra care housing and involved a team of experts from the School of Architecture at the University of Sheffield and the Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) at the University of Kent, in partnership with the Department of Health Housing Learning and Improvement Network (LIN) and EAC (Elderly Accommodation Counsel). The EVOLVE tool, which is free to download, consists of a set of checklists ordered in the sequence of the rooms or spaces encountered in a walk through a building. The checklists relate to user requirements in key areas specific to older people such as accessibility, health and safety, and security, as well as universal requirements such as comfort, privacy and personal care. Each checklist requirement can be answered `yes´ or `no´ and once the list is completed, it is given a domain score.