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Abstract
As the proportion of the global population over 60 continues to grow, the issue of where and how elders are going to live becomes increasingly pressing. The idea or “aging in place” – in which elders remain in their own homes and communities – is becoming an increasingly popular alternative to age-segregated retirement communities. This article documents three new models of aging in place – naturally occurring retirement communities (NORC-SSPs), villages and campus-affiliated communities – and explores how they seek to provide both services and meaningful connections among members. Data from interviews and site visits reveal both promising practices as well as challenges such as how to ensure access for low and moderate-income elders, integrating elders from diverse cultural and linguistic back grounds, and building the leadership and participation of elders. By looking critically at these models, the author argues that many previously held theories and assumptions about the aging process and social capital formation must be reexamined in light of the agency of elders and the new organizational models. Ultimately the design of our communities – both physically and socially – and our approach to retirement must be restructured to support the needs of an aging population.
Mientras que la población más de 60 años continúa creciendo, la cuestión de dónde y cómo van a vivir los ancianos llega a ser más urgente. La idea de ‘envejecer en su propio sitio’, en la cual los ancianos se quedan en sus casas y sus comunidades, se presenta como una opción más popular en contraste con los asilos de ancianos segregados por edad. Este artículo documenta tres modelos de envejecer en su propio sitio – las comunidades de ancianos que ocurren naturalmente (NORC-SSRs), los pueblitos de ancianos y las comunidades al estilo campus – e investiga co′mo intentan ofrecer servicios y crear enlaces significativos para sus miembros. Los resultados de las entrevistas y las visitas a sitio de ancianos muestran unas prácticas prometedoras y también algunos obstáculos, tales como acceso garantizado para ancianos de bajos o medios ingresos, integrando a los ancianos de diversas herencias culturales y lingüísticas, y facilitando el liderazgo y la participación de los ancianos. Analizando críticamente estos modelos, el escritor expone que varias teorías y suposiciones ya existentes del proceso de envejecer y de la formación del capital social deben ser examinados de nuevo, tomando en cuenta la agencia de ancianos y los nuevos modelos organizacionales. A fin de cuentas, los propósitos de nuestras comunidades, ambos fi′sicamente y socialmente, y nuestro enfoque en la jubilación deben ser revisados para apoyar las necesidades de una poblacio′n que esta′ envejeciendo.
Acknowledgements
This paper was written with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and was originally prepared as a Keynote Address for the Community, Work and Family II International Conference, ‘Making Connections in a Global Context’, CIES-ISCTE, Lisbon, Portugal, 12–14 April 2007. I would like to express my appreciation to Professor Lotte Bailyn, MIT Sloan School of Management, for her support and insightful comments on several earlier drafts.
Notes
1. Sun City, located in the American Southwest, was one of the earliest efforts at creating an age-segregated retirement community designed around making retirement a period dedicated to leisure activities, such as golf. (For a fuller, critical description of Sun City, see Freedman, Citation1999, pp. 58–61.)
2. United Nations, World Population Prospects: The 1996 Revision, Annex i, ii, and iii: Demographic Indicators. New York: Department for Economic and Social Information and Policy Analysis, Population Division, 1997.
3. United Nations, Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, ‘Ageing of the Population, 2006’.
4. World Health Organization, Global Age-Friendly Cities: A Guide. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO Press, 2007.
5. United Nations, ‘International Plan of Action on Ageing’, 1982, and United Nations, 2nd World Assembly on Aging, ‘Active Ageing: A Policy Framework’, by the World Health Organization, Ageing and the Life Course Programme, 2002.
6. The current cost of nursing home care in the USA is over $75,000 a year while the average hourly cost of home care services needed to keep frail elders at home is $19 an hour, or about $10,000 a year for a part-time home health aide. ‘The MetLife Market Survey of Nursing Home and Home Care Costs’, MetLife Mature Market Institute, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, September 2006.
7. There are a few similar initiatives in other countries, such as Israel and Australia, but consideration of their specific programs is beyond the scope of this paper.
8. See ‘NORC Action Blueprint Project’, United Hospital Fund, New York, 2007.
9. See www.norcs.com and http://norces.ujcfedweb.org
10. These numbers are based on an email communication dated 9/12/08 from JudyWillett, Executive Director of Beacon Hill Village, to a national Google Group called ‘Beaconhillvillagemodel’.
11. Elders interested in learning how to start a ‘Village’ in their own neighborhood can order The Village Concept: A Founder's Manual at: www.beaconhillvillage.org/
12. In a time banking system, every hour that a person volunteers to help someone else becomes a ‘time dollar’ in their time bank account, and they can draw on that account when they need help with something.
13. See James A. Skurla, Bureau of Business and Economic Research, Labovitz School of Business, ‘UMD University for Seniors Residential Community Phase 1: Overview of Possible Models for University of Minnesota/Duluth’, for Brownlee Advisory Board, March 2007, unpublished report.
14. A. Harrison and T. Tsao, ‘Enlarging the Academic Community: Creating Retirement Communities Linked to Academic Institutions’, Planning for Higher Education, Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 20–30, 2006.
15. Data on Lasell College and Lasell Village is drawn from a case study by Justin Fay, see ‘Aging in Community’, Master's Thesis, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning, June 2008.
16. See Starting in Our Own Backyards: How Working Families Can Build Community and Survive the New Economy (Routledge, 2004) which documents community involvement and community building strategies of 40 working families who have at least one wage earner employed in the biotechnology industry, and one or more children under 18 living at home.
17. I want to thank the following individuals for their time and for sharing their own journeys and knowledge: Susan Berliner, Pamela Braverman, Kathy Burnes, Nancy Mayo-Smith, Grace O'Donnell, Kathleen Spirer, Steven Stadler, Kristina Synder, Donna Turatz, Judy Willcutt, Nora Willcutts, and Rema Zelfand. Whatever deficiencies or inaccuracies exist in the descriptions of these aging-in-place projects are solely my responsibility.
18. All proper names of residents are pseudonyms.