The Best Place to Be? Experiences of Older Adults Living in Canadian Cohousing Communities During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Our objective in this study was to learn about the experiences of older adults living in a cohousing community during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this qualitative exploratory study, we interviewed 13 participants living in Canadian cohousing communities between October 2021 and January 2022. One key challenge identified focused on some community members not choosing to be vaccinated for COVID-19. We identified many positive impacts including the social infrastructure, opportunities for ongoing social engagement, and the physical design of shared indoor and outdoor spaces were beneficial to the physical and mental well-being for older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords:

• Cohousing
• COVID-19
• older adult
• social engagement

Acknowledgments

We thank the study participants and our advisory group for their contributions to this research and to Victoria Barber for transcription services.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada through the Partnership Engage Grant COVID-19 Special Initiative under [grant number 1008-2020-0241].