Senior Co-Housing in the Netherlands: Benefits and Drawbacks for Its Residents.

Katja Rusinovic,Jolien Van De Sande,Marianne Van Bochove

doi:10.3390/ijerph16193776

Abstract

Senior co-housing communities offer an in-between solution for older people who do not want to live in an institutional setting but prefer the company of their age peers. Residents of co-housing communities live in their own apartments but undertake activities together and support one another. This paper adds to the literature by scrutinizing the benefits and drawbacks of senior co-housing, with special focus on the forms and limits of social support and the implications for the experience of loneliness. Qualitative fieldwork was conducted in eight co-housing communities in the Netherlands, consisting of document analysis, interviews, focus groups, and observations. The research shows that co-housing communities offer social contacts, social control, and instrumental and emotional support. Residents set boundaries regarding the frequency and intensity of support. The provided support partly relieves residents’ adult children from caregiving duties but does not substitute formal and informal care. Due to their access to contacts and support, few residents experience social loneliness. Co-housing communities can potentially also alleviate emotional loneliness, but currently, this happens to a limited degree. The paper concludes with practical recommendations for enhancing the benefits and reducing the drawbacks of senior co-housing.

Highlights

In many countries, policies are directed towards enabling ‘aging in place’, which has led to a worldwide increase in the proportion of older people who remain part of their community [1].Older people are expected to stay at home longer, even in countries with long traditions of institutionalized care
Found that residents with physical disabilities felt excluded by other residents, who associated physical disability with mental frailty. These findings suggest that senior co-housing communities do not necessarily protect residents from the experience of isolation and loneliness
We interviewed a total of 32 seniors: Interviews relied on a semistructured questionnaire including questions about the residents’ motives for living in a co-housing community, advantages and disadvantages, social contacts, activities, social support, and loneliness

Summary

Introduction

Policies are directed towards enabling ‘aging in place’, which has led to a worldwide increase in the proportion of older people who remain part of their community [1].Older people are expected to stay at home longer, even in countries with long traditions of institutionalized care. Policies are directed towards enabling ‘aging in place’, which has led to a worldwide increase in the proportion of older people who remain part of their community [1]. It is widely accepted that older people are encouraged, but when possible prefer to continue to live in their own house and neighborhood [1,3,4]. Older people are often strongly attached to their home, especially when they have lived in their house and community for a long time. Their home feels familiar, and that feeling enables a continuity of self and stimulates personal autonomy and individuality [3]. A wide range of co-housing initiatives aim to offer an alternative form of aging in place, in between the extremes of living in an institutionalized setting and remaining in their own house

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion