Authors: Gail Fisher, Kirsty Forsyth, Michele Harrison, Rocco Angarola, Elaine Kayhan, Patricia Noga, Cindy Johnson & Linda Irvine
The Residential Environment Impact Scale (REIS) is a semi-structured assessment and consulting instrument designed to examine the impact of community residential facilities on its residents. The REIS uses four data collection methods to gather the information needed to comprehensively evaluate how well the home provides the support and opportunities needed to meet the needs and desires of its residents in four areas: space, objects, enabling relationships and structure of activities. The four strategies are:
- a walk-through of the home
- observation of three daily routines or activities
- an interview of the residents, and
- an interview of a caregiver, ideally both a manager and staff member if it is a group home situation.
Several formats for data gathering are provided to support data collection and rating for both novice and experienced therapists.
By combining the findings from the four data gathering strategies, the therapist can rate the home in four different domains informed by the Model of Human Occupation: everyday space, everyday objects, enabling relationships, and structure of activities. Each domain has 5 subareas that are rated on a 1 to 4 scale, indicating how well the home supports the residents' sense of identity and competence by providing opportunities, resources, demands and constraints to promote engagement in meaningful and culturally appropriate activities. A detailed rating guide is provided.
Findings from the REIS can be used to guide recommendations aimed at improving the residents' quality of life, focusing on residents' sense of identity and competence in terms of opportunities, resources, demands and constraints that promote engagement in meaningful and culturally appropriate activities. The REIS 4.0 can be used with a range of residential settings, including group homes, nursing homes and single family dwellings serving individuals with a wide range of health and disability circumstances.
History of the REIS:
The REIS v.2.0 and v.3.0 were used as semi-structured assessments for over ten years. REIS v.4.0 was co-created in 2013 and 2014 by Gail Fisher of UIC and the Queen Margaret University (QMU) team in Scotland, headed by Dr. Kirsty Forsyth. The QMU team also led the manual revisions and conducted the research to validate the REIS 4.0 as a psychometrically sound instrument using the many facets Rasch analysis.
Two factors were defined:
- physical environment, including space and objects
- social environment, including enabling relationships and structure of activities
Details about the manual:
The REIS v.4.0 manual includes an optional photo gallery for individuals that respond better to pictures, and appendices including both short and long forms with global and probing interview questions for residents and caregivers. A walk-through rating guide is also provided in both a short and detailed format. The manual is provided in a pdf fillable-form format to allow therapists to record results and complete reports more professionally and efficiently. Both a US English and UK English version are provided, exemplifying the cross-cultural collaboration that led to the completion of REIS v.4.0 in 2014.
Note: This product includes access to the full PDF assessment manual, fillable PDF assessment forms, and online forms. After the assessment is purchased, the printable full assessment manual and fillable assessment forms are available by clicking the "My Account" tab (located in the tab bar at the top of the browser), clicking the "Create a New Evaluation" link (located in a textbox on the right side of the screen), selecting your assessment from the drop down menu and clicking start, and finally clicking the "Manual" or "Assessment Forms" link in the "Links and Resources" box. At this point, you may also click on the "Get Started" button to complete online forms.