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Yes, Bad Things Happen When We Get Older

Despite responsible living and careful planning, older persons may find themselves in residential settings no longer compatible with preferred retirement lifestyles or the declines in their income, physical or mental health, and physical capabilities.

Fall risks increase because their aging dwellings need repairs and interior modifications. Housing expenses are a burden because of more limited incomes. Loneliness sets in because of a divorce or a spouse's death, magnified by losing valued friends. Inclement weather makes where they live unpleasant and restricts outside activities. Incompatible neighbors or busy traffic conditions make them feel anxious and unsafe. Giving up car keys makes it challenging to reach essential destinations. And, it becomes too strenuous for them to carry out routine homemaker tasks and perform self-care activities.

A sense of residential normalcy eludes these older people. They feel that their dwellings, neighborhoods, and communities are uncomfortable or unenjoyable places to live with too many hassles. They are less confident about their abilities to live independently and feel their lives and surroundings are churning out of control.

Also Read: Aging in the Right Place: Listening to Older People and Their Quest for Residential Normalcy

But It's Not Their Final Innings—They Don't Let The Problems Define Them

But let's be clear. To age successfully does not mean avoiding such troubles.

Instead, the mark of older persons who enjoy independent, healthy, happy, and active lives is a willingness to confront and cope with adversity. They acknowledge shortcomings but then refuse to passively ignore them.

Instead, they take actions to recover from their misfortunes or tolerate and manage them more constructively. These older adults view setbacks as only short-term detours, nothing but fleeting scenes in a long-running movie of their lives.

So, Who Copes The Best?

So why do some older adults deal better with unmet housing, health, and long-term care needs?

Psychologists argue the more resilient do best.

They are motivated and able to bounce back from hardships. Because of this resiliency, these older persons initiate actions to regain their residential normalcy.

They make home repairs and modifications; get help from families; access home care or community-based care programs; adopt new smart home technologies; downsize to more manageable and affordable apartments or single-family living; relocate to a caring family member's dwelling; occupy home-sharing arrangements; or transition to more supportive independent living and assisted living senior communities.

So, Who Are These Resilient Elders?

Although interpretations of individual resilience vary, most formulations encompass four indicators:

favorable demographics
supportive life histories
adaptive personalities, and
good health

Favorable Demographics

Better educated seniors are more adept at accessing complete and accurate information about the scope of their coping actions. They are also better informed because they surround themselves with other savvy elders.

With stronger problem-solving skills, they better recognize the benefits of potential solutions. Poor language skills and cultural barriers are resilience killers.

The best-conceived solutions don't help if older persons cannot find out about them because of communication barriers or because adopting them would clash with their religious or ethnic values.

Money matters.

Financially able seniors will obviously have more moving options. They can also afford those products and services that make it feasible to remain safely in their current dwellings.

Critical for their well-being, they don't have to cut or postpone spending on other necessary expenditures to pay for them. They are further advantaged because unlike income-challenged seniors, they avoid bureaucracies and waiting lists of publicly funded programs.

Supportive Life Histories

The past experiences of other older persons better prepare them to cope with problems. Earlier in their lives, they overcame economic, social, or religious hardships. They gained constructive insights that strengthened their adaptive abilities.

These hardier elders believe in themselves, feel more confident, and are emotionally better prepared to cope with whatever obstacles old age throws their way.

Adaptive Personalities

Some seniors have personalities that equip them to cope with stressful life events. They are generally happier and hopeful about everything.

Others are open to new ideas and approaches to solve difficulties. They feel less threatened by change and will give up old habits or behaviors. Higher educational attainment is positively correlated with such openness.

Then there are those achievement-oriented, self-disciplined, and persevering individuals with "internal locus of control" personalities who do not feel helpless in the face of adversity. They believe in their own abilities to control their lives and environments—and don't rely on fate, luck, or religious beliefs.

Perhaps counterintuitively, their confident personalities also enable them to tolerate a reasonable degree of dependence. This allows them to designate the responsibilities for their care to others and yet still feel in charge of their lives.

Accepting help is also characteristic of those with affiliative personalities who are receptive to the counsel and supports of others.

Good Health

Unfortunately, the personal attributes that increase the vulnerabilities of older persons also negatively influence their resilience. Not surprisingly, those in better physical and psychological health are more resilient.

They have the physical and mental prowess and stamina to identify, reach out, and benefit from possible solutions.

Helping Older Persons Become More Resilient

Whether preventable or not, older persons experience assaults on their well-being and housing quality. But in the final analysis, the ability to age successfully depends on their resilience.

To that end, they may benefit from counseling and therapy. An effective treatment plan will increase the self-awareness of older persons, emphasizing the need for stronger self-efficacy. It will also improve their coping or adaptive skills.

But such remedial efforts may not be enough. Resilience is not just an individual affair.

Whether older persons can rectify incongruent housing and care situations depends substantially on whether they can count on the practical assistance and emotional supports of family and, to a lesser extent, friends. Such personal relationships are a valued resource in any older person's coping repertoire.

We also must focus on the resilience of communities, distinguishing places by how well they adapt to the realities of an aging population.

Responsive communities offer building and land use design features that encourage safe and enriched social and physical activities. They provide affordable, appealing, and beneficial products and services (from both the private and public sectors), such as smart home technologies, home repairs, seniors housing, recreational activities, transportation, and long-term care services and supports.

Living in these more resilient places is crucial for less personally resilient seniors with poorer coping capabilities. They stand to gain the most.

Bottomline

We must intensify efforts to nurture the resilience of our aging populations, enabling them to cope with those unexpected personal and environmental challenges.

Only then can we have confidence that they are indeed aging in the right places.

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About the Author

Stephen M. Golant, Ph.D., is a leading national speaker, author, and researcher on the housing, mobility, transportation, and long-term care needs of older adult populations. He is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, a Fulbright Senior Scholar award recipient, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Florida. Golant’s latest book is Aging in The Right Place, published by Health Professions Press. Contact him at golant@ufl.edu

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