Articles
The Journal on Active Aging brings articles of value to professionals dedicated to older-adult quality of life. Content sweeps across the active-aging landscape to focus on education and practice. Find articles of interest by searching the article archives in three ways: Enter a keyword in the articles search bar; click on search by topic; or type a keyword or phrase in the general search bar at the top of the page.
Engaging older adults in indoor and outdoor environments
Hours have been spent in research, discussions and negotiations. Funding is confirmed, finally. The architect has drawn the final plans, and the building committee signed off. But one question remains: What will encourage older adults to use the places and spaces so carefully diagramed on paper?
It’s the question that should be the final test of any new building project. The investment in a project is measured by how much the new or remodeled building or landscape feature is used by its intended audience. A beautiful patio or walking trail may appear, but what makes it desirable to go outdoors? A modern and well-equipped fitness center is built, but what moves older adults to use it—frequently? New furniture in a new building may appear, but will that alone inspire social interaction?
Community design
Creating an enhanced return on investment in assisted living communities by Professor Geoffrey Booth and Susan Rodiek, PhD
As we move through the chapters of our lives, patterns of behavior and choice are reinforced, and fond memories of the places that trigger these memories become increasingly important to life satisfaction and well-being. For older adults, times spent in back yards and on family outings are part of these memories. For this reason, assisted living communities that successfully balance the interconnection between the indoor and outdoor living environments can significantly enhance their competitive attraction, reduce the risk to their net cash flows and reinforce their return on investment (ROI).
Getting the balance right between the real estate opportunity, the real estate offer and the return was the subject of research completed in 2011 at the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University’s Center for Health Systems & Design, and soon to be published in the Health Environments Research and Design Journal (HERD).
Community design
ICAA survey: trends in design for wellness by Patricia Ryan, MS
These are interesting times for providers of services for older adults. The population of “older adults” is already a huge marketplace, and growing. In 2009, along came the economic recession. The income of the oldest adults remains steady, the Baby Boomers have been hit financially, the very poor older adults are still poor, and the wealthy older adults are keeping quiet.
Providers of housing and services—retirement communities, community/seniors centers, some health clubs and hospitals—realize the value of supporting the lifestyles of older adults as well as promoting health and healthcare. Yet, financing has been a challenge over these last years, as banks tightened lending, grantors found their endowments reduced, and governments discovered they were in the red. Like the rest of the people in developed nations, older adults themselves have been somewhat frozen in time, unwilling to lose equity by selling their homes or focused on survival as they slipped into reduced incomes from unemployment. Aging in place has become a hot topic to meet personal preferences as well the reality that the number of older adults in the population requires it.
Community design
ICAA's top 10 articles on leadership
Throughout the International Council on Active Aging’s 10th Anniversary year, the Journal on Active Aging® (JAA) plans to dip into the ICAA archives to highlight some articles from ICAA publications. Each issue will feature a “top 10” list of articles on a specific topic, all available to ICAA members in the association’s extensive online library. In this issue, the editors have focused on leadership. Articles in this category explore “skills for managers; skills for teaching classes and working with clients.”
moreLeadership
Reinvigorating Detroit: a new collaboration aims to serve and preserve a community
Once among the five largest cities in America, Detroit—the former center of the nation’s automotive industry—has dwindled in number since the Michigan city’s peak of 1.8 million in 1950.1,2 The 2010 United States Census puts the current population at just under 714,000, a 25% drop from the 950,000-plus counted in the year 2000.3 Mayor Dave Bing, who believes the 2010 census finding is inaccurate, says the City of Detroit will challenge that number, stressing its importance both to federal and state funding and to community services. “We are in a fiscal crisis,” Bing admits, “and we have to fight for every dollar.”
moreBusiness profiles
Launching the next decade at the ICAA Conference 2011
That shared sense of purpose flowed among the delegates, presenters and exhibitors who joined together to create the International Council on Active Aging Conference 2011, held in Orlando, Florida, in ICAA’s 10th Anniversary year. ICAA sets the stage by organizing the annual conference of professionals. But it is the people and their interactions that define the conference experience. And this past December, that experience reflected the growth and maturing of active aging as a philosophy, and as an industry.
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