Senior Living Communities were not always an option for families to consider. As people began to migrate to the West they left their elderly relatives in the East. This made it hard for families to care for their older relatives. Many of these elderly people ended up in poorhouses because they didn’t have enough money to get the things they needed. Poorhouses were run by people who did not care about the residents and were just trying to get their paycheck. The workers were also incapable of caring for mentally ill residents and often would chain them in pens in the poorhouse. No one wanted to end up in a poorhouse but at the time that was the public facility available for the poor elderly to live in (Senior Living History: 1800-1899, 2018).
During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s many old-age homes were built. These homes felt and looked like warehouses and factories. Population began to increase around the 1900’s because medicine was improving, and the average life expectancy was increasing every year. This meant more people would make it to an older age and would need to be in an old-age home in the future (Senior Living History: 1900-1929, 2018).
In 1935, Title I of the Social Security Act created a program called Old Age Assistance (OAA), which gave cash payments to poor elderly people. This act is important part of history because it later spawned the Medicaid program. While OAA was great in some states, in other states it was not available to elderly people who had families who ought to be supporting them. These states also required that beneficiaries be required to turn over everything that they owned before receiving any assistance from OAA (Senior Living History: 1930-1939, 2018).
By the 1950’s the government became involved in the provision of nursing home care. Before the 1950’s there had never been a survey conducted of how many facilities there were in the United States. The government also did not know what characteristic these homes had and how they were funded. In 1954, the first national inventory of nursing homes was done. They found that virtually all homes were for-profit facilities and only 4% were public. “In 1954 the Hill-Burton Act was amended to provide funds to nonprofit organization for the construction of skilled nursing facilities that met certain hospital-like building standards (Senior Living History: 1950-1959, 2018).” This act gave money to organizations to build homes that resembled hospitals and met the same building codes and standards.
In the recent years, people have moved away from senior living homes looking like hospitals and rather they are looking more like residential spaces. This helps residents to feel like they are at home and not staying in a hospital. Also, these homes are starting to prepare for the baby boomer generation to move in. They are adding the latest technology to their communities and finding new ways to help residents continue to feel independent while they are living in the community. These are important to the baby boomer generation (Minnix, 2018).
In today’s senior living communities, residents do not want to feel like they are trapped in a home. They want to still have their freedom and make contributions to the community they are staying in. There are a couple of ways the community can help to make their residents feel important. The first and strongest one is that residents want their independence still. While some divisions such as memory care cannot give their residents full independence, they give them as much as they can. Residents also want to make meaningful contributions to those around them. Something as simple as making cookies for their fellow residents can make a person feel like they have contributed to those around them. Another thing to help them feel normal is to have programs that make residents feel important and special. When a person move into a senior living community, they tend to feel old and like they are weighing their family down. The staff at the community can quickly change that by making them feel like an important part of the new community they joined. Residents want to feel valued and not like a burden to anyone. The final thing to help residents is how the community is set up. It helps to group residents with people who are in a similar stage of life. It helps to keep those people on the same level as opposed to having them decline faster. Also, the interior of the community can help residents to feel lighter and happier. A community that has a lot of natural light and calming colors can help the residents have a positive attitude. All these things are the future of creating better senior living communities (Minnix, 2018).
Minnix, W. L. (2013). The New Eternal Truth about Senior Communities. Retrieved January 30, 2019, from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.lynx.lib.usm.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=0&sid=3eff07a4-7b52-4b09-ab9c-280c8e178184@sessionmgr101
Senior Living History: 1800 - 1899. (2018, April 19). Retrieved January 30, 2019, from https://www.seniorliving.org/history/1800-1899/
Senior Living History: 1900 - 1929. (2018, April 19). Retrieved January 30, 2019, from https://www.seniorliving.org/history/1900-1929/
Senior Living History: 1930 - 1939. (2018, April 19). Retrieved January 30, 2019, from https://www.seniorliving.org/history/1930-1939/
Senior Living History: 1950 - 1959. (2018, April 19). Retrieved January 30, 2019, from https://www.seniorliving.org/history/1950-1959/
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