Perceived Safety in Extra-Care Housing for Senior Residents

ABSTRACT

Extra-care housing (ECH) is a new housing model in Sweden, falling in between ordinary homes and sheltered housing. The perception of safety among residents living in ECH was explored with the use of in-depth interviews (n = 28, on average 83 years old). A qualitative thematic analysis resulted in a model of perceived safety in the housing environment consisting of four themes: being able to manage on my own; a safe social context; being able to stay; and protection and safety. The model can be used for information, planning, and development of ECH in general.

KEYWORDS:

• Perceived safety
• extra-care housing
• senior residents
• housing environment
• in-depth interviews

Acknowledgments

Economic support for this research was provided by FoU i Väst/GR. We gratefully acknowledge Sara Davidsson and Bell Andersson in contributing to this study, and special thanks are also due to all participating residents, hosts, civil servants, and property owners.

Notes

¹ We decided to use the word safety in this article, since safety seems to have more of a personal meaning compared to the word security (www.etymonline.com) and thereby corresponds better to the Swedish word “trygghet.”

² The Swedish Standards Institute recommends three levels of standard for housing interiors: a low, an ordinary, and a high level (Swedish Standards Institute, 2006).

³ The host is a person employed by the landlord or the municipality and is normally working part-time at each housing facility. He or she is creating social activities in collaboration with the residents in the house or elsewhere and uses the common space for indoor activities.

⁴ The number of inhabitants in the three municipalities were approximately 557,000 (big city), 58,000 (medium city), and 40,000 (small city). The oldest building in the study was built in the 1960s and the newest in 2013.

⁵ The residents were supposed to go to a communal space for social activities 500 meters away.