The Importance of Housing and Health for Older People

This assignment emphasizes the importance of housing and health for older people, focusing on the need for comfortable living conditions, access to healthy environments, and the effective use of technology. It critiques traditional interventions and strategies related to housing needs of older generations, arguing that active and passive technologies can improve their quality of life.

BA (Hons) Health and Social Care
OMED 1299
Environment, Housing and Wellbeing.1
Year 2018/2019
Submission Deadline: 24/04/2019
Words Count: 2737
Course Leader: Veronica Habgood

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………… 1
Understanding Environment, Housing, Health and Well-being…………………………. 1
Importance of recognising housing and well-being needs of Older People……………. 3
Interventions or strategies relevant to housing needs of older population………………. 4
Effectiveness of Interventions or Strategies……………………………………………. 6
CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………. 9
REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………….... 10

INTRODUCTION:
Housing refers to an individual's dwelling, living conditions or accommodation which is
often subject to the environmental factors in which the person lives (Barton and et. al., 2015).
Environmental factors can be temporary or permanent. Also, they may be part of internal
(immediate housing or accommodation) or external environment (locality, community,
neighbourhood or place). Wellbeing of an individual is generally concerned with the quality of
life that a person experience. It demands that the basic needs of personnel are met, and they are
free from various kinds of disabilities. People who are getting old and frail can also strive to lead
a healthy life provided that the housing facilities are appropriate to meet needs of people. This
article gains an insight into a community of homeless people It assesses the effectiveness of
interventions as well as strategies associated with housing needs which promote health and well-
being.
Understanding Environment, Housing, Health and Well-being-
Health and well-being of an individual is a prime need in today's world for the person to
sustain for a long time. Housing comprises of positive as well as negative impacts upon physical,
mental, social and emotional well-being of a person. Thus, it is essential that housing needs of
individual are considered at all the times. For instance: Infants and young children require an
environment which can facilitate their effective growth and lead to timely emotional and
physical development of their body (Bradley, 2015). School going children require adequate
space and privacy for their development. Old aged people spend a lot of time at home and thus,
they require extra security and heating facilities to have access to a comfortable environment.
Everyone needs a safe and secure accommodation or dwelling to live. People with disabilities
need to have access to substantial facilities as well as additional care. This is a pre-requisite for
them to be able to enjoy a safe and secure living. Old people possess disabilities like dementia,
Alzheimer, obesity, Osteoporosis, Arthritis etc. and need a proper environment where there is not
any more possibility of getting a disease or disorder (Van Dijk and et. al., 2015).
Living within a hygienic environment in decent housing and accommodation ensures the
access to a sustainable lifestyle. This helps in ensuring a quality standard of living and develops
1

a route for access to health and social care services, education, food shops, leisure centres and
many more of such consumer facilities. On the other hand, poor accommodation facilities or
unfavourable living environment increases the possibility of individuals getting prone to
unsecure conditions. The facilitating and adverse effects of housing and the local environment is
experienced by individuals both at macro as well as micro level (Grigsby, 2017). For instance,
energy insulation may act as a pro or con for an individual householder. However, regeneration
of area may affect a wider neighbourhood or community. While when government gives any
policy upon housing and its environment, it has a large effect on housing supply and demand of
the whole place.
(Source: Four Dimensions of Housing, 2019)
Relationships between housing facilities, health and well-being.
Poor Quality
Housing
This implies the need of repair as there are health and safety risks due to
the presence of poor facilities like leaking roof, damp or no water supply
Frequent Movers
(inclusive of
Asylum Seekers)
Alienation, loneliness, isolation and disruption of routine life by
restraining access to essential amenities leads to stress and depression
among individuals and often cause complex and chaotic living.
Temporary This has a detrimental impact on development of child and leads to issues
2
Illustration 1: Four Dimensions of Housing

Dwelling related to emotional and physical health of adults.
Damp as well as
cold housing
This is a sort of poor housing often due to low income of individuals and
inadequate heating and insulation facilities which lead to stress, respiratory
diseases, discomfort, hypothermia among adults.
Quality of Air and
presence of
Pollutants
Poor quality air has detrimental impacts upon health of children and adults
and may even cause death of individuals. At times, it even causes carbon
monoxide poisoning and asbestos due to the existence of pollutants in air
(Bradshaw, 2016).
This has a major impact upon physical health and increases the risks of
infectious diseases like tuberculosis (TB). It even leads to issues related to
privacy and enhance the risk of decreased educational attainment.
Noise Pollution Noise by way of air, rail and road traffic or nearby dwellings can cause or
even increase the existing level of tension, stress and depression among
adults (Vasara, 2015).
Pest Invasion This may have a huge impact upon social and physical health of
individuals.
Importance of recognising housing and well-being needs of Older People:
Older people refer to the quantum of population in their latter stage of life. People
belonging to this group are nearby or already surpassing the life expectancy of humans and so
are placed at the end of human life cycle. As per the observation and many surveys conducted, it
can be significantly stated that older people have restricted regenerating abilities and thus they
are more prone to health hazards, syndromes, injuries, casualties, disease, and sickness etc. than
younger generation. Most developed nations regard older people as the personnel belonging to
age group of over 65 years. The older populations face a lot of additional issues such as
loneliness, depression, hypothermia, dyslexia, dementia, Alzheimer’s and other health and social
hazards.
Everyone needs access to a healthy, secure, decent and affordable housing. Yet, at
different stages of one's life, an individual has varying needs in relation to housing and
3

wellbeing. Older people need access to comfortable as well as easy housing facilities such that
they can live a quality life. It implies a healthy as well as active lifestyle for old age people. On
the contrary, it is often observed that these individuals are prone to poor, inadequate or
inaccessible dwelling which does not possess the potential to meet the housing needs of older
people (Westwood, 2016).
Providing older people, the access to right housing comprises of numerous benefits for
the society. While there have been many positive initiatives taken in relation to specialist and
mainstream housing, it is observed that they have not been enough to effectively meet the
housing and well-being needs of older people. Existing reforms in care system provide a scope
for encouraging more effective ways of integrated housing with a wide range of flexible lifestyle
in terms of support and care for older people (Colic-Peisker, Ong and Wood, 2015). Yet what
needs to be understood well is that it is not so feasible for older people to get adaptations or
repairs done within their house in a quick and affordable manner. What needs to be emphasized
upon by governmental as well as local bodies in today’s rapid changing world is that they are
still not able to build and develop the right number of retirement housing which can influence
older people to stay there and live a healthy life. However, it is generally seen that even if such
option is available, it is open to only a small quantum of older population. This reflects the need
for ascertaining the ways in which housing and well-being needs of older people can be met so
that they can also have a quality lifestyle without being prone to health hazards.
In today’s world, it is essential that older population is placed at the forefront of housing
debate. This means that it is the hour of need to offer independence, control along with such
housing solutions that can co-relate with the rapidly changing lifestyle as well as needs of older
people. The key here is to lay an emphasis upon coping with the risks as well as unpredictability
that are substantially associated with new housing developments. The older population is a very
big quantum and the housing and well-being needs of every individual person differ from each
other. It can be largely said that there is no simple alternative which can fulfil the needs and
demands of every section of older people. This gives rise to the need of determining and
developing a wide range of alternates that can be selected and opted by these people in their
lifestyle to enhance the quality of life they are living at present (Easterlow and Smith, 2017).
A large and significant older generation looks forward only towards the mainstream
housing solutions to fulfil their housing needs. Dealing with such issues related to housing and
4

well-being needs of older people will ensure a high-quality standard of living as well as enhance
the range of provisions made for this generation. The availability of adequate and accessible
housing for every person will ensure a wide variety of housing choices which can appeal to the
newer generation emerging within old population (Gitlin, 2017). This cannot be made sure just
by the efforts of government to encourage a variety of different options but also demand the
long-term investment from sources such as public as well as private sectors.
Interventions or strategies relevant to housing needs of older population:
Older people need access to adequate and healthy dwellings so that they can ensure a
quality lifestyle without standing a risk to get prone to diseases like hypothermia, tuberculosis
etc. Lifetime Homes Standards have set out certain guidelines in relation to housing facilities
available for older generation. It is determined that until all the homes where older people reside
or move into at regular intervals meet the regulations set by Lifetime Homes Standards, quality
of lifestyle cannot be ensured for this generation (Gorman, 2017). The only alternative available
to provide the older people access to high standard of living is by way of specialised housing.
This is particularly essential for the people belonging to age group of over 85 years and have a
significant role in fulfilling the physical as well as social housing, health and well-being needs of
old population. Specialised housing also strives to provide opportunities for elderly personnel to
overcome depression, stress, discomfort, tensions and social isolation (Easterlow and Smith,
2017).
Significant reduction in environmental demands to enhance P-E (Person-Environment) fit
can only be achieved by introduction of a wide range of home modification strategies. These can
be in the form of prosthetic facilitators or accessible features available in housing for older
generation such as specialised tools and equipment’s along with environmental amenities
designed and developed to largely meet the needs of older people with disabilities or health
hazards (Gutman, 2017). Besides this, environmental intervention is a union of such activities
along with provision of services that starts with ascertainment and analysis of needs and
comprises of determination and execution of effective solutions. Provision of a facilitating
environment for older people within the housing is necessary to ensure that these individuals
have access to adequate and quality living. The interventions associated with fulfilment of
5

housing and well-being needs of older people comprises of accessible designs, modified settings
which are customised as per the requirements and functional needs of older generation.
Environmental interventions are linked to primarily three major activities, namely, moving inside
and outside home, mobility within home and self-care (Colic-Peisker, Ong and Wood, 2015).
Movement inside and outside home can become difficult when houses are built above the
ground level and have only the option of stairs. These stairs can become a hurdle to wheelchair
users and hinder their movement inside and outside the house. For this, walkways should be
smooth enough with slip resistant surfaces to enable comfortable movement. Mobility within
home can be made better with housing modification strategies to ensure comfortable activity,
enhance safety and bring improvements in health and well-being of older people. With regards to
Self-care activities, it is often noticed that the bathroom surfaces are wet and slippery and
becomes extremely dangerous for older people. For people who have difficulty raising and
lowering them, enough space should be made available and each self-care equipment should be
modified to be placed at a certain height to ensure comfort. In addition to this, safety for older
people can be enhanced by adding supports like grab bars, floor-to-ceiling pole etc. (The
Physical Environment and Home Health Care, 2018).
Effectiveness of Interventions or Strategies
Although major efforts have been made by government to make housing comfortable and
healthy for older people to ensure quality lifestyle for them, yet the effectiveness of these
interventions is still a question mark. These strategies have succeeded in providing a little
comfort to older generations but still these have the potential to be developed more to suit the
needs of this generations in a more optimum way. Active and passive technologies should be
made available to older population to make sure that they do not face any difficulty while
carrying out the daily activities and living an optimal lifestyle. With regards to active
technologies, a wide range of standalone as well as integrated devices are available which ease
the experience of older people by enabling patients with disabilities to actively control their own
health and significantly reduce the number of acute episodes. Treatment technologies within the
house include equipment’s that provide various types of therapies and helps in bodily functions
including assistance in medicine delivery, breathing, and suction (Shanas and et. al., 2017). On
6

contrary to active technologies, passive home technology systems have no dependence upon
active engagement of older people in home. Such systems make use of networking of transmitter,
sensors and receivers to monitor the activities of older people, determine any potential safety or
health hazards and carry out communication of physiological status of older age patients to
health care providers (The Physical Environment and Home Health Care, 2018). This can ensure
timely medical assistance within the home and largely contribute towards fulfilment of housing,
safety and healthcare needs of older people.
CONCLUSION:
Based on above discussion, it has been concluded that every individual within a society
needs access to healthy environment and dwelling to ensure that they lead a quality life. Also, it
has been analysed that older people need comfortable and easy living condition so that their
basic health, environment and well-being needs can be fulfilled. Besides this, it is assessed that
the traditional interventions or strategies related to housing needs of older generation are
ineffective. Thus, this give rise to the need of utilising active and passive technologies to ensure
ease of living for old generation.
7

REFERENCES:
Books and Journals
Barton, H., and et. al., 2015. The Routledge handbook of planning for health and well-being:
Shaping a sustainable and healthy future. Routledge.
Bradley, R. H., 2015. Children's housing and physical environments. Handbook of Child
Psychology and Developmental Science. pp.1-38.
Bradshaw, J. ed., 2016. The Well-being of Children in the UK. Policy Press.
Grigsby, W. G., 2017. Urban housing policy. Routledge.
Vasara, P., 2015. Not ageing in place: Negotiating meanings of residency in age-related
housing. Journal of aging studies. 35. pp.55-64.
Colic-Peisker, V., Ong, R. and Wood, G., 2015. Asset poverty, precarious housing and
ontological security in older age: an Australian case study. International Journal of Housing
Policy. 15(2). pp.167-186.
Easterlow, D. and Smith, S. J., 2017. Housing policy and health in Britain. In Housing and
Health. (pp. 1-16). CRC Press.
Gitlin, L. N., 2017. The impact of housing on quality of life: Does the home environment matter
now and into the future? In New Dynamics in Old Age. (pp. 105-126). Routledge.
Gorman, M., 2017. Development and the rights of older people. In The ageing and development
report. (pp. 21-39). Routledge.
Gutman, R., 2017. People and buildings. Routledge.
Shanas, E., and et. al., 2017. Old people in three industrial societies. Routledge.
Van Dijk, and et. al., 2015. The ideal neighbourhood for ageing in place as perceived by frail and
non-frail community-dwelling older people. Ageing & Society. 35(8). pp.1771-1795.
Westwood, S., 2016. ‘We see it as being hypersexualised, being put into a care home’: gender,
sexuality and housing/care preferences among older LGB individuals in the UK. Health & social
care in the community. 24(6). pp.e155-e163.
8

Online
The Physical Environment and Home Health Care. 2018. [Online]. Available
Through:<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK210046/ >.
9