Home Safety Training Project

“Our goal is to create simulated home environments to prepare students to conduct home assessments for people with disabilities and older adults.” -Project Team

Room clutter may manifest from mental health conditions (e.g., hoarding disorder, depression, schizophrenia) and other health problems (e.g., dementia). Clutter not only impairs the ability to generally function in home spaces (e.g., access to the refrigerator, kitchen sink, or bathroom), it could result in significant health risks (e.g., potential injury from falls, presence of insects, rodents, poor air quality) as well as dangers associated with emergency response (e.g., risk of fire, increased time to extinguish a fire in a cluttered home).

For healthcare professionals, conducting home assessments may pose risks associated with unsafe home environments, client or caregiver aggression, or other physical or emotional risks of harm. Therefore, it is important that healthcare professionals have the skills to quickly assess personal safety risks and implement strategies to best mitigate these risks. It is also critical that health professional students gain the training needed to effectively conduct home assessments to enhance quality of life and prevent future health concerns. 

Currently, there is a gap in the School of Social Work and the College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences: Sargent College’s curricula related to home-based assessments and interventions, where most of the education exists in the field or employment domains and is not systematically integrated into course curriculum. Home-based simulation technologies are also limited as they are not publicly available nor easily scalable and disseminated. 

For this pilot, the project team is partnering with Jackrabbit LX to create interactive simulations featuring home environments that will prepare students to conduct home assessments, which will be combined with didactic learning modules in Blackboard. This modular home environment simulation training will feature six online modules in the asynchronous training and an interactive synchronous module for interprofessional learning, practice, and collaboration. 

The project focuses on interprofessional training for students and facilitates opportunities for collaboration and the standardization of key competencies needed for connecting classroom learning to real-life skills to improve the student experience and increase confidence in conducting home visits as students transition to work environments. By creating interactive, innovative, and standardized curriculum, BU students will graduate with hands-on experience that can be immediately applied to their future careers, which will also lessen the burden of training new graduates at their place of employment and allow for deeper learning opportunities in their places of work. 

Another goal of the project is to create one version of the content that can be used by multiple professions to further embed interprofessional learning as part of BU’s health and social sciences programs. This training has the potential to be embedded into agencies around the country as a key onboarding tool for all new hires that could become a standard part of agency training.

Milestone Update Sept. 2024

In the first year of the project, the team trained 14 students in Social Work and 19 students from Sargent College and increased interprofessional collaborations. Through pre-/post-test assessments, the team found that knowledge and skills improved in: assessment, team-based care, communicating with person and family, cultural considerations, reliable and valid assessment tools, ethical and legal practices, and confidence in home-based assessments. The students expressed an overall satisfaction in completing the modules.

Conferences, News & Publications

• Slater, C., Muroff, J., Keefe, B. & Jacobs, K.  (2024, September 24). Implementation and evaluation of interprofessional home-based assessment training. Virtual poster presentation at the Nexus Summit 2024: Navigating Complexity to Advance Outcomes.
• Jacobs, K., Slater, C., Muroff, J., & Keefe, B. (2024, November 1).  Interprofessional home-based assessment training: Implementation and evaluation. 30 minutes presentation at the MAOT/RIOTA Conference, Norwood, MA.

Project Team

Jordana Muroff, PhD, MSW, MA

Project Team jmuroff@bu.edu

-- Please select a member -- Jordana Muroff, PhD, MSW, MA, Project Team Craig Slater, PhD, MPH, Project Team Bronwyn Keefe, PhD, MPH, MSW, Project Team Karen Jacobs, OT, EdD, OTR, CPE, FAOTA, FHFES, FIEA, Project Team Jackrabbit Learning Experience, Partner

• Jordana Muroff, PhD, MSW, MA Project Team
• Craig Slater, PhD, MPH Project Team
• Bronwyn Keefe, PhD, MPH, MSW Project Team
• Karen Jacobs, OT, EdD, OTR, CPE, FAOTA, FHFES, FIEA Project Team
• Jackrabbit Learning Experience Partner

Jordana Muroff is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Clinical Practice Department at BUSSW.  Her research and clinical practice interests integrate the following areas (1) developing and disseminating evidence-based practice interventions (e.g., group cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) for hoarding); (2) generating innovative, technology supported…Read More

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Jordana Muroff, PhD, MSW, MA

Project Team jmuroff@bu.edu

Jordana Muroff is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Clinical Practice Department at BUSSW.  Her research and clinical practice interests integrate the following areas (1) developing and disseminating evidence-based practice interventions (e.g., group cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) for hoarding); (2) generating innovative, technology supported evidence-based interventions (e.g., web-based, smartphone); and (3) reducing inequities and improving access to mental health and substance use services for underserved populations. She is a licensed social worker and a Field Instructor with partnering community agencies. 

Dr. Muroff has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers on these topics and first authored the book Group Treatment for Hoarding Disorder: Therapist Guide (Oxford University Press, 2014). Her research on mental health (e.g., hoarding) and substance use disorders has appeared in American Journal of Public Health and Depression and Anxiety. She has led federal and foundation funded research studies in collaboration with community agencies. Dr. Muroff serves as the Editor for the Oxford University Press ABCT Series on Implementation of Clinical Approaches.