As planners, designers, owners/operators, and everyone in between create new built environments, they need to first understand the world in which those built environments will exist and how that should be reflected in what’s created.
And for one, it’s pretty important—especially for those charged with building senior care communities—to recognize that our world is aging and that the definition of what aging means is changing, said Richard Adler, distinguished fellow at the Institute for the Future, during his closing keynote presentation at the 2014 EFA Conference in Anaheim.
The only age group expected to grow in coming decades is the over-60 crowd, with those in the 85-plus and 100-plus sectors to multiple by hundreds of percents, Adler said. And it’s not just here in the U.S.—global life expectancy between 1840 and 2000 was steadily on the incline, and there’s no indication it’s flattening any time soon.
“That is a long-term trend that says longevity is here to stay,” Adler said.
But the aging of old is shifting gears, primarily because of two key principles: We’re living longer and therefore also working longer and playing longer.
And while over the past half-century the U.S. in particular has put systems and solutions in place to support older populations, Adler said it’s become apparent that those won’t be scaled to support the masses of today. And while the problem is apparent, Adler also argued that standard approaches to solutions should be replaced by innovation at a grassroots level to reinvent what we’ve known as aging to better support the needs and desires of our aging populations.
To start, Adler addressed the issue of work. Not only has it become financially unsustainable for many to plan for retirement at 65, there are a number of other reasons for seniors to stay in the workforce, from bringing years of experience and knowledge to the table to simply being active members of society. Adler proposed that organizations provide more opportunities for those nearing the end of their careers as well as volunteering options.
In terms of healthcare, he suggested tweaks be made in the built environment to better support seniors and provide an ease in care, from the concept of senior emergency departments to retail healthcare conveniently located within communities to telemedicine and remote health monitoring.
But outside the doors of our healthcare spaces, Adler said it’s community that will further shape experiences. “It’s what you see when you open your door and walk out,” he said. Approaches that have been successful include senior villages, or wellness-focused communities that support aging-place; care circles, a care-giving mechanism supported by volunteers to ensure seniors’ needs are met; or social service agencies that work with communities to identify individuals needs and put the necessary support in place to address them.
And lots of interesting things are happening on the housing front, too, Adler noted, specifically via communities that support the needs of unique populations—from artists’ colonies to LGBT sites to homes that support a certain cultural base.
At the crux of the issue, though, is finding ways to reinvent aging for those who don’t fit the bill for what used to be considered “old.” “There’s a new stage of life emerging,” he said. Adler suggested that in addition to childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age, the phase “Adulthood II” could be inserted to represent those years between the late 50s and early 80s.
So what does this new world order of aging mean overall? Adler presented a shift in concepts associated with aging, such as “old age” becoming “longevity,” “burden” becoming “resource,” and “stagnant” becoming “innovation.”
For the first time in history birth rates are dropping globally, to the point that by 2020, there will be more individuals age 65 and over than there are 5 and below—and once it happens, Adler said it won’t go back. “The world is changing,” he said, and noted it’s in everyone’s hands to invent what this new future might be.
Jennifer Kovacs Silvis is managing editor of Environments for Aging. She can be reached at [email protected].
