It doesn’t have to be the retirement home right away : 5 future living models for seniors
Due to the rapid social and demographic change, there is no question that new forms of housing and care for an aging society must be developed. While the willingness to care for the elderly in conventional care facilities is declining, there is an explicit need for self-empowerment, sharing and preservation of privacy and individuality. The idea of giving up one’s own home at an advanced age and having to spend the last few years in a retirement home arouses legitimate fears among many older adults. Among others, the following concepts will partially replace old people’s homes over the next few decades:
#1 AAL at Home
Aging in good health and reaching a correspondingly old age is probably a clear social goal. AAL can make this possible: The use of technology in nursing should facilitate the work and make life easier for older adults. The technology used should support active aging and enable a self-determined living in one’s own home. Active Assisted Living (AAL) contains concepts, products and services particularly in the areas of communication, building technology and health technology. These connect and enhance new technologies and social environments.
Family members, for example, can use a video system to make sure that their relatives are doing well. They can talk to them, explore their health and get help in emergency. Furthermore, it is possible to organise purchases via AAL, to procure medicines or to call a doctor if necessary. The goal of AAL is to increase the quality of life for people in all stages of life and to enable seniors to live in their habitual environment as long as possible. Modern technologies can help to make the everyday life of older adults safer and more enjoyable. The applicability of AAL ranges from building measures to intelligent but relatively simple technical aids, e.g. walking aids or automatic memory reminders for the intake of medication, to more complex technical systems, such as fall detection systems.
#2 Senior living communities
So far, residential communities have only been known between students. More and more, common living is also a concept among older adults. Many seniors know the situation that the life partner has died and they suddenly stand alone with an apartment, which is then too big and too expensive for one person. In a senior living community, seniors share an apartment or a house, in order not to be lonely. Residents can exchange views and can do something together. But there’s also the opportunity to retreat into one’s private room. In a shared apartment, privacy is limited to one or two separate rooms, while kitchen, living rooms and sometimes bathrooms are shared. In that way, mutual support and independent living are possible in combination.
It is important that the apartment is barrier-free and that the environment with the range of shops, cultural institutions and green areas fits to seniors. Furthermore, it is important in the composition of the roommates that a part is still fit, mobile and self-sufficient to help other residents, who are limited in their health. Cooking together and entertaining evenings, as well as new tasks, are other important reasons for living in a senior living community. As with student flats too, the roommates of the living community must fit together in character and in terms of their interests and hobbies. Through senior living communities, isolation and loneliness can be avoided and enjoyment of life can be gained. Due to an investigation, about 18% of older adults over the age of 60 can imagine to live in a living community with other seniors. Meanwhile, there are even Internet platforms that provide residential communities for seniors.
#3 Homeshare
Providing housing and therefore receiving support in everyday life — that is the idea behind the concept „homeshare“. An older adult provides housing for a young person (often students). In return, the young person provides help in everyday life — for example shopping or helping out in the household. Here, the rent is not paid by means of funds, but much more by small services or assistance. All parties benefit from mutual give and take. The concept focuses on social commitment, open-mindedness and solidarity. For the success of the community it is necessary to build trust, to get to know each other and to take sufficient time for it.
The offer “homeshare” is aimed at people who have free living space, such as a room for example, in their home or in their house and want to provide it to another person for help. The type of assistance is subject to indivudal agreements. This assistance can be e.g. gardening, domestic help, animal care, joint ventures or hiking. Nursing services of any kind are excluded. As a rule, the young person provides one hour of assistance per month for one square meter of personal space. Through homeshare, living expenses can be saved and older adults may probably feel safer. In order to avoid disputes, the conditions should be precisely stated in a contract. First and foremost, how many hours are there to help, whether the rent is completely compensated or whether an additional payment is required. The roots of homeshare lie in the USA, where the first programs were set up in 1972.
The first german project of this kind was developed in 1992 in Darmstadt, as there is generally the problem of great shortage of affordable housing for students in many cities. At the same time, however, many people in these cities are in need of help for a variety of reasons and can easily provide a room or a flat.
#4 Multigenerational Houses
The multigenerational house is a traditional form of living that has always existed. But today, the term has a slightly different meaning: the residents no longer necessarily have to be related to each other. A multigenerational house is a house or a building, which is used across generations as a living space or open meeting point. The concept is based on the desire to revive the togetherness and mutual support of young and old.
A multigenerational house usually has at least two or more separate housing units. A meeting place for the residents is optimal. The residents live in their own spatialities and support each other, when help is needed. Usually, seniors live on the ground floor; singles, couples or families in the upper levels. Spatialities such as communal kitchens, sports halls or guest rooms can be used according to agreed rules. Volunteering is indispensable in a multigenerational house. Volunteers work as loaning grandparents, organize German courses, provide computer tutoring or set up theatre projects. Older and younger residents benefit from the division of labor, mutual support in everyday life and the exchange of experience.
Often, older adults take on part of the childcare, while younger people help them in their everyday life. Nowadays, about one in five Americans is living in a multigenerational household. But also in Asia and Latin America, this form of living is on the rise. According to the International Longevity Centre Global Alliance, 30% of urban Indian families and 60% of rural Indian families live in multigenerational houses.
#5 Cohousing
Many older adults have the desire to live in a community and still enjoy an independent, self-determined life. For these seniors, cohousing is the perfect solution. A cohousing concept consists of an intended community with private apartments or houses, which are supplemented by community facilities. The settlement is planned and managed jointly by all residents and consists of private dwellings or houses supplemented by extensive communal facilities. The goal is to promote the interaction with neighbours. Furthermore, all decisions are made by consensus.
Residents make up a community of like-minded people, where neighborly coexistence is emphasized, where cooking and eating together is common and where enough privacy for every resident and family is provided. The benefits of cohousing are manifold: a child-friendly environment, mutual support in everyday life and a reduction of living expenses through the sharing of community facilities and equipment. In addition, community resource planning and the division of resources can have significant social, economic and environmental benefits.
The residents usually share large kitchens and dining rooms, laundry rooms, day-care centers, officies, cybercafes, home theaters, libraries, workshops and gyms. Moreover, cohousing promotes common social activities. The basics of the cohousing concept come from Denmark in the 1960s. Cohousing has been successful in Scandinavia and Holland for decades and is becoming more and more popular, also in America.