Residential milieu and locational suitability : a study of selected elderly residents in non-profit care facilities within Greater Vancouver

• Main Author: Fallick, Arthur Laurence
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/22108

As the age structure of Canadian society changes in the ensuing decades, housing and caring for the elderly will undoubtedly take on increased significance, and consequently, it is crucial that our social institutions begin to prepare now for this change. This thesis focuses upon the opinions of a selected number of residents of fifteen Personal and Intermediate Care Facilities operated by non-profit organisations within the Greater Vancouver Regional District, which are now an integral part of the recently inaugurated Long Term Care Program in British Columbia. An initial fundamental premise of the research was that a poor location, one which serves to physically isolate residents and reduce their interaction with the wider coimiunity, would likely engender social isolation with a concomittant reduction in individual well-being. While geographers and others have developed location - allocation algorithms for determining the optimal location of e.g. health facilities, a notable deficiency of such analytical methods is their lack of attention to the needs and opinions of those whom the facilities are designed to serve. In an attempt to rectify this situation a survey of fifteen per cent of the residents in each of the selected institutions was conducted to improve our understanding of how well the facilities were serving the occupants, and in particular, whether or not they are well situated with respect to the locational preferences of the elderly. It has been argued that the space - occupancy behaviour of the elderly is extremely sensitive to their surroundings and that the location of structures and spaces assumes greater significance especially when the constraints on mobility are taken into account. These and associated questions are addressed through the analysis of the responses to the questionnaire which was administered. In evaluating a person's degree of residential satisfaction, it is unrealistic to separate the dwelling unit from its surroundings or its locality. Both are an integral part of what has here been termed "residential milieu" which includes both the institutional milieu and those parts of the surrounding area which the individual uses to satisfy his or her physical and psycho-social needs. The results generally confirm the notion that life satisfaction is positively related to the level of residential satisfaction and mobility. While the respondents' assessment of the surrounding area is less centrally related to their sense of well-being we are reluctant to conclude that the location of a care facility is unimportant. === Arts, Faculty of === Geography, Department of === Graduate