Selecting Person— Environment Assessments

Rehabilitation practice is broadening not only to meet individual client needs but also to address group and community requirements. It now recognizes and emphasizes the influence of the environment on client function and treatment outcomes. This redirection in practice requires the use of trustworthy instruments of measure that address these person-environment relationships. The chapter presents a process that can be used to select and evaluate instruments for potential use in clinical practice and research. It also provides information on 41 assessments identified through a literature review and consultation with experts. Each assessment tool was rated according to construction, level of measurement, clinical utility, standardization, reliability and validity on 3-point scales. The instruments are listed by usefulness with social units of individual, family, and community and their usefulness identified based on four evaluation dimensions. Issues related to the clinical utility of these instruments in rehabilitation and research suggestions for future steps are also discussed.