Promising Aging in Community Models in the U.S.: Village, Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC), Cohousing, and University-Based Retirement Community (UBRC)

Hou, Su‐I; Cao, Xian

doi:10.1177/23337214211015451

Cited by 16 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…Furthermore, some interpret this decision as a new situation full of potential and a unique opportunity for introspection and to do spiritual activities [7,31,63]. This approach allows for all of society to prepare for a successful aging process and, indirectly, to reduce the feeling of loneliness in older adults [64,65]. Healthcare professionals who participated in this study understood that there was a higher level of loneliness in older adults' homes than in care homes [29,30], contrary to what other studies have demonstrated [22,32].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Healthcare Professionals’ Perceptions of Loneliness amongst Older Adults: A Qualitative Study

Dobarrio-Sanz

Ruiz‐González

Fernández‐Sola

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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Background: Loneliness amongst older adults is linked to poor health outcomes and constitutes a public health issue worldwide. Healthcare professionals’ perceptions could influence the strategies they implement in order to prevent, detect and manage loneliness amongst older adults. The aim of this study was to describe and understand healthcare professionals’ perceptions of loneliness amongst older adults. Methods: A descriptive qualitative study. Twenty-six Spanish healthcare professionals with experience caring for older adults participated in the study. Data were collected between November 2019 and September 2020 using focus groups and in-depth interviews. Data were analysed following a content analysis method using ATLAS.ti software. Results: Healthcare professionals’ perceptions of loneliness amongst older adults is represented by three themes: (1) “when one’s personal life and social context lead to loneliness”; (2) “from abandonment to personal growth: the two faces of loneliness”; and (3) “loneliness as a health issue that needs to be addressed”. Conclusions: Healthcare professionals perceive loneliness as a multifactorial, subjective experience that can trigger different coping mechanisms and negatively affect older people’s health. Healthcare professionals consider that a greater involvement of the whole society is needed in order to fight loneliness amongst older adults as a public health issue.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Healthcare Professionals’ Perceptions of Loneliness amongst Older Adults: A Qualitative Study

Dobarrio-Sanz

Ruiz‐González

Fernández‐Sola

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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“…NORCs have been described by Kloseck et al [4] as "untapped resources to enable optimal aging at home" because they offer social-relational connections and build on the strengths of communities. Since the initial paper by Hunt and Gunter-Hunt [3] defining NORCs >30 years ago, there has been a growing body of literature on NORCs and NORC-SSPs; specifically in the last year, 3 review papers have conducted broad explorations of aging-in-place models, including NORC programs, from different perspectives [5][6][7]. Mahmood et al [5] described key barriers and challenges of NORC-SSPs as well as cohousing and village models within the domains of the age-friendly communities framework.…”

Section: Benefits Of Reviewing Norc Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mahmood et al [5] described key barriers and challenges of NORC-SSPs as well as cohousing and village models within the domains of the age-friendly communities framework. Hou and Cao [6] conducted a systematic review of NORCs, cohousing, and university-based retirement community literature to explore the push-and-pull factors of migration. Chum et al [7] conducted a scoping review to explore models that included NORCs, congregate housing and cohousing, sheltered housing, and continuing care retirement communities for the purpose of identifying themes across models that support aging in place.…”

Section: Benefits Of Reviewing Norc Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities: Scoping Review

Parniak¹,

DePaul²,

Frymire³

et al. 2022

JMIR Aging

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Background As Canada’s population ages, there is a need to explore community-based solutions to support older adults. Naturally occurring retirement communities (NORCs), defined in 1986 as buildings or areas not specifically designed for, but which attract, older adults and associated NORC supportive service programs (NORC-SSPs) have been described as potential resources to support aging in place. Though the body of literature on NORCs has been growing since the 1980s, no synthesis of this work has been conducted to date. Objective The goal of this scoping review is to highlight the current state of NORC literature to inform future research and offer a summarized description of NORCs and how they have supported, and can support, older adults to age in place. Methods Using a published framework, a scoping review was conducted by searching 13 databases from earliest date of coverage to January 2022. We included English peer- and non–peer-reviewed scholarly journal publications that described, critiqued, reflected on, or researched NORCs. Aging-in-place literature with little to no mention of NORCs was excluded, as were studies that recruited participants from NORCs but did not connect findings to the setting. A qualitative content analysis of the literature was conducted, guided by a conceptual framework, to examine the promise of NORC programs to promote aging in place. Results From 787 publications, we included 64 (8.1%) articles. All publications were North American, and nearly half used a descriptive research approach (31/64, 48%). A little more than half provided a specific definition of a NORC (33/64, 52%); of these, 13 (39%) used the 1986 definition; yet, there were discrepancies in the defined proportions of older adults that constitute a NORC (eg, 40% or 50%). Of the 64 articles, 6 (9%) described processes for identifying NORCs and 39 (61%) specifically described NORC-SSPs and included both external partnerships with organizations for service delivery (33/39, 85%) and internal resources such as staff, volunteers, or neighbors. Identified key components of a NORC-SSP included activities fostering social relationships (25/64, 39%) and access to resources and services (26/64, 41%). Sustainability and funding of NORC-SSPs were described (27/64, 42%), particularly as challenges to success. Initial outcomes, including self-efficacy (6/64, 9%) and increased access to social and health supports (14/64, 22%) were cited; however, long-term outcomes were lacking. Conclusions This review synthesizes the NORC literature to date and demonstrates that NORC-SSPs have potential as an alternative model of supporting aging in place. Longitudinal research exploring the impacts of both NORCs and NORC-SSPs on older adult health and well-being is recommended. Future research should also explore ways to improve the sustainability of NORC-SSPs.

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“…Social capital is a key component of successful AIC initiatives (Greenfield 2014;Hou & Cao 2021;Thomas & Blanchard 2009). AIC requires coordinated support services, tutoring and volunteering (Chou & Kroger 2014;Hunter, Neiger & West 2011) to keep older adults in their homes and connected to their communities.…”

Section: Background Social Capital and Ageing In Communitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Community-Engaged Research on Social Capital and Older Adults’ Health: Lessons Learned

et al. 2022

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Most adults in the United States prefer to age in their own homes and communities. However, many ageing-in-place models rely on expensive external services, negatively affecting access by lower socioeconomic status (SES) and other vulnerable groups. This article documents two pilot projects conducted by a community-academic partnership that examined associations between social capital, ageing in community, and health among older adults. The first project explored the association between social capital and health across community SES levels. The second project explored one type of social capital, timebanking, and its association with health. We highlight here our lessons learned from these community-engaged research (CER) projects: (1) Our partnership needed to improve our study design and data collection by enhancing our recruitment strategies, community site partnerships, survey instrument and data matching, and research team workload allocation issues. (2) We should have validated our instruments for use with older adults who had mild cognitive and visual impairments, acknowledged how community SES differences influenced our data collection, and included more research assistant support during our community meetings. (3) We would have benefited from protocol development for recording and responding to issues raised by participants. Our projects also led us to relational insights, such as reinforcing the need to foster clear communication across team members, involving community advisory boards earlier in the CER process, seeking network input on research strategies to meet older adults’ needs, and developing plans to sustain long-term relationships. We hope these lessons learned are useful to other community-engaged researchers.

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Promising Aging in Community Models in the U.S.: Village, Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC), Cohousing, and University-Based Retirement Community (UBRC)

Cited by 16 publications

References 59 publications

Healthcare Professionals’ Perceptions of Loneliness amongst Older Adults: A Qualitative Study

Healthcare Professionals’ Perceptions of Loneliness amongst Older Adults: A Qualitative Study

Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities: Scoping Review

Community-Engaged Research on Social Capital and Older Adults’ Health: Lessons Learned

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