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practical living to use the tool). The tools were developed initially for a variety of reasons, such as examining environments where dementia care is delivered, assisting with designs of new buildings, auditing the physical environment and assessing buildings.
These 10 tools had varying strengths and limitations and were ranked according to how many of the minor refurbishment domains were addressed, as this was the specific area we were studying. Five tools addressed all seven domains through to one tool which only addressed two domains.
Of the five tools, two were not subjected to further review due to limited scoring information and criteria, and similarity( but with less detail) to an existing tool.
Three tools from the original 10 were identified as requiring further review, and one of the tool authors proposed a newer and alternative tool for consideration.
You said you found four tools to be suitable for further review. What can you tell us about them? DesignSmart is a comprehensive Australian tool with over 600 questions and specific scoring criteria which is then linked to an action plan. This tool is purchased for a single facility use only, so if you wish to audit more facilities, you will need to purchase additional copies of DesignSmart. There do not appear to have been any published studies using this tool.
The Residential Aged Care Services Built Environment Audit Tool is a Victorian government initiative with 193 items listing specifications for improvements which are matched against appropriate standards and resources.
The tool kit is readily available and includes supporting photographs. We were able to source one study using this tool which had some reliability and quality aspects considered.
The Sheffield Care Environment Assessment Matrix( SCEAM) was developed in the UK and has 318 questions. Uniquely, this tool captures information on how the building is being used as well as how it was designed.
The tool kit and accompanying information is also readily available. This tool was developed for research purposes and has not yet been fully validated.
One of the authors suggested we also examine EVOLVE( Evaluation of Older People’ s Living Environments) as this tool assesses how well the building contributes to the physical support and wellbeing of older people, which may then help establish the minor refurbishment priorities.
A common limitation was the predominant absence of any reliability or validity studies.
The study team felt it was essential for an assessment tool to produce consistent and stable results( reliability) and to measure well what it says it measures( validity).
Thus we suggest that these tools undergo further reliability and validity testing before we put forward any recommendations for use in establishing refurbishment priorities. This will be the next phase of our study. ■
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