City Retirement Homes - Essay Example

The design perceptions in city retirement homes A retirement home for the elderly can be referred to as a home for the old people or else a home for the senior citizens of a country. ‘Living in a city is a pity’ as many may think and just as we may find ourselves held up with jobs till we forget about taking care of the elderly. In this essay, a close observation is on the basic needs of the elderly group, how they often relate with their surroundings, their social lives, and expected behavior and how differently they behave from the other groups. A retirement home has specific features and their impacts to the society at large. How specifically they tend to relate to society is of significant concerns and thus discussed fully in the essay. The essay tries to answer some questions on how the elderly relate with the society. The essay gives a conclusion relating with popular theorists on city life and planning concerning the elderly homes. The first area of concern is how the elderly are taken care of by the community in relation to their needs. As a responsibility to take care of the elderly, it is vital that we get a critical understanding of the needs and requirements of the elderly. The requirement for the elderly will involve the following; financial needs, housing, health care, nursing, social and other needs. Having a good awareness about the various needs and requirement of the elders as listed above, is necessary for care takers of retirement homes as they are vital for quality care to the elderly. Financial needs, just as regarded in the community, are a basic need for the elderly as it enables them to pay for their requirements such as up-keep at the retirement homes, food, groceries, medicine and other basic necessities. Thus, a source of income or savings is necessary for the senior citizens. Housing is a necessity for everyone as well as for the elderly; this is because everyone desires to live in areas where he or she is comfortable. The design of a retirement home should be able to accommodate changes that may arise with time as well as consider the comfort of the dwellers. The retirement home should be such that it is a safe place with helpful neighborhood in case of an emergency. A place where there is well developed infrastructure service; clean and reliable water supply, electricity, schools, telecommunication and well-connected public transport. Health care is the most beneficial when it comes to the elderly needs as they are prone to sickness. With the ageing trend, their body tends to weaken by slowing down and as a result becoming less efficient. Thus, a retirement home needs to be installed with proper care and nursing facilities. Their health issues need to be checked regularly. Efficient and effective medical checkup that is to be performed regularly is essential in monitoring the health status of the elderly. This helps in anticipating potential future related- issues and also help in identifying serious health problems at the initial stage during their treatment. This is because early detection of health problems enables health professions to address the problem appropriately without panic or uncertainties. The ageing condition has also been found out to make the digestive system of the elderly to weakengradually. The retirement homes should staff individuals who can manage the diet of the elderly by incorporating essential foodstuffs that can be easily digested, remains nutritious and balanced diet. Their diet needs to be altered according to their medical prescriptions. Nursing needs can be taken care of by allocating a nurse to assist the elderly person who works full time. A social need is a matter of fact to the elderly people to make them feel wanted, appreciated, cared for and loved by the community. They require regular visitation by their family members, relatives, friends and well-wishers. Therefore, they should not be avoided at all times. There are various behavior changes that are expected with old age. These changes include theloss of memory, elderly persons asking too much even the obvious facts a state which the society finds irritating. The society should learn to accept the change of the old people and treat them with caution even if it means repetition of the same thing over and over. Health detrimental is a condition experienced by the old age as their body immune system weakens and often tend to be prone to diseases. Hoarding may often appear, this is when the elderly seem to be driven to search for something they believe is missing and to hoard things for safekeeping. Causes of hoarding behavior include; isolation, when they are alone and feel neglected they tend to focus entirely on themselves. Events in the past tend to trigger memories of the past. Feel to have lost part of their past lives e.g. friends, family members or a certain role in life. Hoarding should be managed through keeping them company or making them busy and explaining to them why there are changes in the society like use of new technology. They should be made to understand the need for new technology with its contribution to the society. This is as a result of the elderly people tending to acquire repetitive behavior as they age. The level of interaction of the elderly with other members of the community in their respective homes also contributes a lot to the general wellbeing of the elderly. Most of the retirement homes in the city are in such a manner that befits the elderly communities that reside in the home. There is always a common room where the elderly meet and discuss issues that they consider being of great importance to them. The elderly like to socialize as this has a positive effect on their lives and the design of the common room incorporates their entertainment needs (Datong Chen, 2005). The design of the elderly home is in such a manner that there are large hall ways that allow for interactions within the home. The design allows wheel chairs to easily be used in the hall ways. The level of interaction in an elderly home varies and mostly depends on the different age groups present at the home. The most common interaction is between the elderly themselves as they meet in the common room, libraries and at the picnic sites. However, the level of interaction between the elderly and the younger group is minimal as they only get a chance to meet with the staff that takes care of them. Most of the rest of the society view the design of elderly as old school and befitting for the elderly only. The level of interaction between this group and the elderly is minimal and only occurs when there is a necessity. The interaction is mainly in the common room where visitors get a chance to interact with them. The elderly also behave differently from other groups. The elderly group is characterized with conditions associated with the elderly, conditions that are not present in the younger generation. The elder tend to be aggressive, and they are offended by matters which to the other generation are not of importance. This fact has necessitated the design of the elderly homes to include monitoring cameras and sensors (Datong Chen, 2005). The incorporation of monitoring technology enables the care takers to view clearly every moveand activities taken by the city home dwellers. The home hall ways are large and different from the other group’s hallways that are normally smaller. This is so as to allow wheel chair movement and emergency evacuations in case of a disaster[ CITATION Soo07 \l 1033 ]. The elderly homes are fitted with signs that are large and conspicuous. The main reason for the size of the signs is to enable people with reading problems to have an easier time when reading the signs. These large signs make the elderly in the homes to feel segregated and like they are controlled in a certain manner. The furniture in the homes is old fashioned, to make the dwellers feel comfortable by using their favorite furniture. This makes the elderly feel more at ease, but the younger generation feels segregated by this furniture and out of place when in these homes. In conclusion according to elements of spatial planning theory, planning is considered to be a difficult process in that it involves altering boundaries to fit human needs and desires (Arlinghause, 2008). Planning how to use the earth’s surface involves what space to use, when to use it and for what reason should it be used. With respect to the elderly, they should also be considered while allocating this resource as they form a very important part of the society. They should be appreciated and taken care of by the society. In short, I can conclude that a retirement home is part and parcel of us and needs to be put in place in personal plans as it is the society’s responsibility to take care of the elderly in our society. This can be accomplished through budgeting for their financial needs, health care, housing needs and their social life. It is our responsibility as the society to determine the expected changes that come with old age and how we can easily cope with these changes. Harvey Cox in his article “The Secular City” dated 1965 presents the discrimination issue based social status, type of work and age. The same way that the families do not trust the maintenance man whom they do not know where he is coming from is replicated to the elderly in the society. There is also the observation of divide and rule where the younger generation segregate the elderly to retirement homes and lead a secluded life where most of the elderly feel like it’s a prison. It is important for all the urban plans of a city to factor all that is discussed in this essay to try and provide a remedy for the social misunderstandings due to the plan of a city. Bibliography CITATION Soo07 \l 1033 : , (Sookyoung Lee, 2007), Read More