The COVID 19 lockdown has accelerated the change in the way we think about where we will live in retirement. Newer thinking has posited a move away from the idea of living in the current models of retirement and residential care homes. Many Baby Boomers desire to live out their final years with more freedom and choice than they feel they would have in the traditional setting. The Coronavirus with its deleterious effect on older people has brought this discussion into sharper focus. Not only did the residential care home model not prove safe for its residents but also many suffered loneliness from being locked away from their family and friends. In a “Longevity Challenge” undertaken by the University of Queensland’s Healthy Ageing Initiative and Queensland University of Technology’s Faculty of Urban Architecture and Design in conjunction with Redlands Shire Council, many of the players in the industry had their say about how and where they wished to live in older age. Importantly, this included retirees and Baby Boomers who expressed a desire for greater autonomy as well as a desire to stay in their intergenerational neighbourhood.
Here’s some more of the findings and a link to the report.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-11/retire-the-retirement-village/12229702?utm_source=abc_news&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_content=link&utm_campaign=abc_news