One might assume that retirement communities would be the last place we would encounter age-related prejudices, but research from the University of Bath suggests that is sadly not always the case.

The researchers highlight that around 6% of Americans currently live in some form of a retirement village, and they cite previous research showing that residents can often be treated as a homogenous blob, simply because they’re all over 60, which can be problematic.  The reality is that residents can span several decades and therefore have very different needs.

Different needs

For instance, some of those spoken to by the researchers said that they chose to live in a retirement village to help them to prolong midlife for as long as they could.  They very much wanted to remain fit, healthy, active, and independent for as long as possible.

Other people, however, chose to live in a retirement community out of concern for their safety due to increasing frailty and generally deteriorating health.  The villages, therefore, were sought to try and help support them through these challenges.

These very contrasting needs were often in conflict with one another, with those residents striving for a more active life often less than accepting and supportive of frailer residents who needed more assisted living.

Indeed, more active residents often complained that their older, frailer peers dragged them down and made them feel older themselves as they limited their own activity levels.  Many, therefore, asked for a more selective recruitment process than is often the case in a sector in which the ability to pay is the main selection criteria.

Marginalization

This often left those who did move to such facilities to get more support feeling ostracized and marginalized by their peers.  Some residents reported that they felt like something of a leper when surrounded by more active peers because few wanted their frailty to rub off on them.

Suffice to say, this is not an absolute picture, and there are residents who are more accepting and accommodating of peers with different desires.  For instance, some of the more active participants often accepted that they too might be frail in the future and used this as a bridge to help them understand the needs of others.

The researchers highlight that retirement villages are often sold with a compelling narrative about a certain kind of “successful aging”.  Such images are often defined as much by the images they omit (of frail elderly people) as the handsome and healthy seniors they present.

The vague definition of just what many retirement communities exist to provide can create a sense that they are Jacks of all trade and masters of none, which doesn’t really help accommodate or even recognize the diversity of needs within the community.  If we are to age more healthily, this is a development that really needs to change.