Professional environmental assessment procedure for special care units for elders with dementing illness and its relationship to the therapeutic environment screening schedule.

The Professional Environmental Assessment Procedure (PEAP) was developed as a global quality-assessment measure for use by trained professionals in special care units for older people in dementia units of nursing homes. The PEAP consists of nine ratings whose relationship to another assessment device, the Therapeutic Environment Screening Schedule (TESS), is reported. Although designed to be multidimensional, the PEAP as tested in 43 special care units seems to reflect primarily a single evaluative dimension. It correlates highly with the TESS and may be used either separately or in combination with the TESS.