Adaptations

 Adapting your Home for Medical Needs  

If you or a member of your household has a disability or chronic condition that means you sometimes struggle with daily living - such as climbing stairs or getting in and out of the bath - WSHA may be able to adapt your home to help make things easier for you. This is called a medical adaptation.

Some examples of common medical adaptations are fitting additional handrails on stairs and installing wet room showers. This work is funded by Scottish Government Grant Funding.

How to Request a Medical Adaptation

 There are two pathways for requesting an adaptation, depending on the type of adaptation required.  

1. Self-referral
2. Referral from an Occupational Therapist

1. Self-referral

 For minor, temporary and non-structural works, such as handrails and grabrails, you can apply to us directly by completing a Medical Adaptations Self Referral Form. Once we receive your self-referral form, we will confirm if we can do the adaptation and then instruct the works to be completed within 1 month.

To self-refer, you can fill out the Medical Adapatations Self-Referral Form here. You can also request a paper form by emailing online.repairs@westscot.co.uk or by phoning  WSHA customer service on 0141 550 5600.

Some common examples of self-referral adaptations: 

• Additional handrail at stairs - inside or outside, 
• Grab rail in bathroom
• Flashing beacon smoke alarm
• Additional door entry handset 

2. Referral from an Occupational Therapist

For larger medical adaptations that involve permanent or structural changes to the property, we will need a referral form from your Occupational Therapist (OT). 

Some common examples of OT-referral adaptations: 

• Automatic door closers
• Wet floor shower
• Level Access shower
• Closomat WC
• Car port for disability car
• Drop kerb
• Ramp
• Widening of door

How to Access Occupational Therapy 

To access local Occupational Therapy services, please contact your Local Authority Social Care Department (see below).

If you need assistance making the referral, you can ask your GP to do this for you, or a trusted person. We can also complete the self-referral form for you. However, please note the self-referral form does ask personal questions.   

What happens when we receive your Occupational Therapy referral

Once your referral is received by the OT, they will contact you to arrange an at-home visit where they will assess your needs. Once the at home assessment is complete, the OT will send a referral to us specifying the adaptations needed.

Once we receive the referral, we will arrange a pre-inspection by our Technical Officer and a contractor. The contractor will then submit a quote and once approved, we aim to have the work instructed and completed as soon as possible and subject to available grant funding.   

How we prioritise medical adaptations requests  

Priority 1 – Critical   

• Tenant unable to carry out essential daily activities without the adaptation.  
• High probability of requiring admission to care if adaptation not provided. 
• Adaptation essential to enable hospital discharge. 

Priority 2 – Substantial  

• Tenant has difficulty in carrying out essential daily activities. 
• Probability of breakdown in living arrangements if adaptation not provided. 
• Adaptation required to prevent deterioration of health.  
• Adaptation required to enable normal development of children. 

Priority 3 – Moderate   

• Tenant has difficulty carryout of essential daily activities but has suitable support. 
• Adaptation required to promote independence of disabled/elderly person. 
• Adaptation required to prevent needs for more costly alternatives.

Should we run out of funding, any adaptations not completed in the financial year will remain on our waiting list until such times that more funding is available. You don't need to apply again.  

Keeping You Informed 

We will keep you informed along each step of the process. We will do this via text/email/phone call or letter.

When we can't adapt the property

Rarely, we receive referrals for adaptations that, upon inspection, we find are not technically possible to carry out. In this case, we will liaise with both you and the occupational therapist to see if there is an alternative solution. However, if we cannot adapt the property we can refer you to your Housing Officer to determine if a house move is the best option for you. 

Contact us

If you have questions or need more information about the Medicial Adaptations process, please contact the Repairs Department on online.repairs@westscot.co.uk or 0141 550 5600