Most individuals indicate a strong preference to remain in their homes and communities as they age. Aging in place can offer both economic and health benefits. As the population continues to age, it is especially critical that communities facilitate aging in place. This study aims to inform local policy by addressing two goals. First, determine potential unmet needs of older adults in Fulton County, Georgia through conducting a descriptive analysis; and second, determine predicting factors of community satisfaction through estimating a logistic regression model, based upon an adaptation of Bronfenbrenner’s social-ecological framework. Descriptive findings showed that local senior centers and meal services are prevalent. However, potential unmet needs include housekeeping, home repair, transportation, social involvement, and awareness of a senior resource hotline. The regression model revealed home repair services and demographics including marital status, education, race, and income were statistically significant predictors of overall community satisfaction in this study.

Thesis (M.G.S.)--Miami University, Dept. of Sociology and Gerontology, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-80).

abstract: In an environment in which public values are often surrendered for market ones, the administration of public housing has increasingly devolved construction, management, and even ownership responsibilities to the private sector to cut costs. There is little known about private management practices at public housing sites and how they shape the lives of its residents - half of whom are growing numbers of seniors and people with disabilities who are aging in place. This multi-site comparative case study involves three public housing sites that serve seniors and people with disabilities: one is privately-managed, one is publicly-managed, and one is privately-managed with public case management through the HOPE VI program. The intent of this comparison is to determine if there is a difference in management response by sector and whether differences pose a challenge to social equity. Results indicate that there were social equity failures across all three sites with the private sites experiencing the most barriers for residents. The power-knowledge structure and perceptions of the residents shaped the institutions or staffing, services, policies, and amenities that either empowered the residents by helping them build a cohesive community; or it subjugated them by not offering space for community-building. In response, many residents' actions and beliefs were shaped by these institutions; however, in the face of resistance to management practices, they often exercised power through self-governing to achieve the satisfaction they desired. Recognizing that residents can exercise their own power, community resiliency to support aging in place may be achieved by supporting resident needs and drawing upon their expertise, assistance, and influential power to build stronger housing communities - an option with low costs but great gains. But in order to do so, the power-knowledge structure must be influenced to support this goal. This research describes the governance of public housing and the responses and relationships of both management and residents in these newly created public spaces. It then presents a model that can foster change in resident engagement and network building to support aging in place, and advance social and community resiliency, regardless of sector. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Public Administration 2014

abstract: As people age, the desire to grow old independently and in place becomes larger and takes greater importance in their lives. Successful aging involves the physical, mental and social well-being of an individual. To enable successful aging of older adults, it is necessary for them to perform both activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). Embedded assessment has made it possible to assess an individual's functional ability in-place, however the success of any technology depends largely on the user than the technology itself. Previous researches in in-situ functional assessment systems have heavily focused on the technology rather than on the user. This dissertation takes a user-centric approach to this problem by trying to identify the design and technical challenges of deploying and using a functional assessment system in the real world. To investigate this line of research, a case study was conducted with 4 older adults in their homes, interviews were conducted with 8 caregivers and a controlled lab experiment was conducted with 8 young healthy adults at ASU, to test the sensors. This methodology provides a significant opportunity to advance the scientific field by expanding the present focus on IADL task performance to an integrated assessment of ADL and IADL task performance. Doing so would not only be more effective in identifying functional decline but could also provide a more comprehensive assessment of individuals' functional abilities with independence and also providing the caregivers with much needed respite. The controlled lab study tested the sensors embedded into daily objects and found them to be reliable, and efficient. Short term exploratory case studies with healthy older adults revealed the challenges associated with design and technical aspects of the current system, while inductive analysis performed on interviews with caregivers helped to generate central themes on which future functional assessment systems need to be designed and built. The key central themes were a) focus on design / user experience, b) consider user's characteristics, personality, behavior and functional ability, c) provide support for independence, and d) adapt to individual user's needs. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Computer Science 2015

Bakgrund: Världens befolkning blir allt äldre vilket innebär utmaningar för hälso- och sjukvården. Samtidigt vill majoriteten äldre leva självständigt och bo kvar hemma. Välfärdsteknologi är ett sätt att bemöta kraven på hälso- och sjukvård som en åldrande befolkning medför. I samband med tillämpningen av välfärdsteknologi uppstår dock etiska frågeställningar. Det är därför av betydelse att belysa äldres upplevelser av välfärdsteknologiska hjälpmedel i hemmet. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att belysa äldres upplevelser av välfärdsteknologi i hemmet. Metod: Studien genomfördes som en allmän litteraturstudie med induktiv ansats och databearbetning genom kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultatet baseras på nio vetenskapliga originalartiklar med kvalitativ ansats. Resultat: I resultatet framkom fyra teman: upplevelser av självständighet, upplevelser av förhållandet mellan trygghet kontra privatliv, upplevelser av inverkan på relationer samt upplevelser av ambivalens och oro. Konklusion: Användningen av välfärdsteknologi i hemmet upplevdes av äldre huvudsakligen som positivt då det bidrog till bibehållen självständighet, trygghet och kontroll. Äldre var överlag villiga att ha överseende med eventuella nackdelar då välfärdsteknologi gav dem möjligheten att bo kvar i sina hem längre och därmed åldras hemma. / Background: The world's population is ageing which brings challenges for healthcare systems. Meanwhile, a majority of older adults want to remain independent and stay in their own homes. Welfare technology is one way of meeting the demands on healthcare that an ageing population entails. However, with the use of welfare technology, ethical issues also emerge. It is therefore important to illustrate older people's experiences of welfare technological solutions at home.  Aim: The aim of this study was to illustrate older people´s experiences of welfare technology at home.  Method: The study was conducted as a literature review with an inductive approach and analysis through qualitative content analysis. The result was based on nine qualitative original papers. Result: The result presents four themes: experiences of independence, experiences of the relationship between safety versus privacy, experiences of impact on relationships, and experiences of ambivalence and concern. Conclusion: The use of welfare technology at home was mainly experienced as favourable. Older people were overall willing to overlook disadvantages as welfare technology gave them the opportunity to live in their home and thus age at home.

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The number of older Americans as a percentage of the United States population is growing. A majority express a strong desire to remain in their homes as they age; however, the physical and cognitive declines associated with the aging process often limit their ability to safely age in place. Social isolation and loneliness brought on by stay-at-home orders in response to the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 further limit this population’s quality of life. Evidence-based occupational therapy research has demonstrated that home modifications can be an effective and cost-efficient intervention for reducing falls and maximizing participation in community-dwelling older adults wishing to age in place. Still, varying levels of education and training in home modifications is needed for occupational therapy practitioners to help meet the needs of the aging-in-place population. Power of Place: Understanding and Advocating for Occupational Therapy’s Role in Home Modification is a web-based program in home modification for entry-level occupational therapy and occupational therapy assistant students that includes training to become an AARP HomeFit® volunteer. Designed to be embedded in an existing course, the supplemental curriculum includes both synchronous and asynchronous learning grounded in theoretical frameworks of person-environment-occupation, adult learning theory, design thinking and social learning theory. Training to become an AARP HomeFit® volunteer provides the foundation for experiential learning in home modification. Measured improvements in home modification competency and student self-efficacy through participation in Power of Place will drive further student learning, spark interest in becoming a HomeFit® volunteer within their local communities and promote greater recognition of the profession in the public arena.

The study's purpose was to identify the perceived needs and concerns of three generations in a family with an older adult aging in place in Mississippi. This mixed-methods study used snowball sampling in addition to recruitment by community leaders such as Extension agents to collect data through semi-structured interviews and structured questionnaires that asked about current and future problems among aging adults in rural communities in Mississippi. Three generations of Mississippians participated in the study, including older adults (G1; n = 22), adult children (G2; n = 23), and young adult grandchildren (G3; n = 19). Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS Statistics, while qualitative data were managed with MaxQDA. Physical and mental health concerns were identified across all three generations. Financial concerns, including paying for basics such as food, medical and health care costs, and transportation issues, were most often reported by the two younger generations rather than the older adults. Services that assist with caregiving of older adults, including respite care, home health, and adult daycare options, were identified as services G2 and G3 family members reported as families currently needed or anticipated to need soon. Implications of the findings for families, community leaders, policymakers, non-profit organizations, and for-profit businesses are provided.

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