Living Environments for the Elderly. 2: Promoting the ‘Right’ Institutional Environment

Abstract

The vast majority of older people live in a wide variety of ordinary housing in the community. In contrast, residential homes, nursing homes and hospitals accommodate approximately 6 per cent of the elderly population (Tinker, 1984). However, with advanced age the possibility of living in such settings increases, and among this group are some of the most frail and vulnerable members of society. The average age of residents in residential homes is in the mid-eighties, and data from the 1981 Census show that, for England and Wales, whereas only 2–3 per cent of those of pensionable age were living permanently in residential establishments, the proportion rises to 13 per cent for those over 85 years, a figure which also shows wide regional variation (Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, 1983; Peace, 1986a). To some extent, these figures reflect societal changes which may make institutional living a more commonplace experience for a minority of the very old. Such changes include the growing number of the ‘old’ old within an ageing population, who are potentially more ‘at risk’; fluctuations in employment/unemployment and its effect on family care for the elderly, particularly among women; present government support for the growth of private residential and nursing home care; patterns of retirement migration; and the increase in specialised housing for older people, which may result in a greater acceptance of alternative living environments in later life (Peace, 1986a).