What is ‘special accommodation’ for the ‘elderly’ and just who needs it? Many elderly people, perhaps most of them just go on living where they had been living previously. Residents are surrounded by things with which they are familiar, friends, family and activities etc. When a change of circumstances occur the resident may have lived many of their retirement years in that same house. Even the death of one of an elderly couple may not cause the other to leave particularly, if that person is still relatively fit and able to look after themselves. If they do gradually find living alone too difficult then they might move to sheltered housing. This type of accommodation is usually provided by the local authority for rent. It is often in the form of semi-detached or terraced bungalows with a resident warden. Demand for this type of accommodation outstrips supply and there are usually long waiting lists.

Other types of special accommodation for the elderly

In those cases where living alone in their own home was not possible or where it was too difficult to remain in sheltered housing then the next step was probably a retirement home. A retirement home is something akin to an hotel for the elderly. Rooms are rented, usually by the month - in advance. In the more expensive homes, where the average residents is probably younger, the home is very much like an hotel with special facilities for the elderly and it is likely to be nothing more than a retirement home. However at the more economical end of the market where the residents will generally be older there will be a requirement for help with washing and dressing and perhaps also for assistance with eating and for supervision of medical requirements. Homes in this category of referred to as nursing homes.

Nursing homes

The local authority provides some of these but the majority are now privately owned. Those in private ownership comprise small individual homes not unlike those provided by the local authority on the one hand and larger properties or groups of properties operated by larger specialist retirement organisations on the other. Many local authorities are finding it too expensive to run their homes economically and are closing them. This has put severe pressure on the small private homes that then have to accommodate those whom the local authority is obliged to accommodate and who then pay them at un-economic rates to do so.

There is even more pressure on the small private home because of the continuing increase in regulation particularly those covering health and safety. Corridors and door openings for example cannot be widened in those older and otherwise satisfactory buildings and there is usually no room for a lift or it is far too expensive to extend the building and put one in. A room which was previously suitable for two persons is often re-assessed to cover single occupancy only. Not surprisingly very many of the smaller homes are closing down.

Demand for this type of accommodation is often governed by location but price is usually and important factor. Almost all the residents of nursing homes are on their own, either widowed or never married and they need to be near a relative, who needs to be within reasonable travelling distance.

Combined nursing home and retirement bungalows

There are some nursing homes where they have been able build bungalows within their own land area. This has enabled the nursing home to provide some oversight of residents needs and to assist residents who will eventually need nursing home accommodation to go to one with which they are already familiar.

A few of the retirement apartments and retirement estates which we have described are able to provide invalid care or nursing care on an ad hoc basis either by recruiting care staff for residents as they are required or by making arrangements for the residents to recruit the staff themselves. Retirement estates and apartments organised on this basis are known as providing assisted living.