Old age and change in home and neighbourhood: Personal adaptability by frail older people in response to the legacies of social and economic policies

Abstract

This paper considers various theories about old people and housing and concludes that old people must be differentiated by age, class and income level. In addition any theory must consider the way past economic and social policies affect present attitudes to home and neighbourhood. Interviews with a small group of mentally frail old people and their carers show that older people can hold both positive and negative views about their homes and neighourhoods with no apparent conflict. Positive views of home by far outweighed the negative. People were able to adapt to the problems of physical and mental frailty, though some feelings of loss were inevitable. Many had moved late in life, and a small minority were actively trying to move, but not into residential care. In contrast social and economic policies had resulted in a great deterioration in the neighbourhood as far as the frail elderly were concerned. The positive side of neighbourhood was the provision of services which allowed them to remain in their own homes.