A retirement village in every community?

The controversy surrounding the proposal to build elder-friendly apartments and a care-facility beside the Kaymed factory struck a chord with me, writes Pat O'Mahony, author of Rethinking Housing Options for Senior Citizens: Retirement Villages in Every Irish Community and formerly Principal at Newbridge College.

While I don’t wish to get involved in the appropriateness of this development application, I am hugely interested in the capacity of retirement villages to improve the quality of life of older people. 

Ireland’s over-65 population is set to grow by 70 persons per day for 30 years and the life expectancy of those being born is well over 100. Yet, today many older people, irrespective of their means, reside in relative isolation, even when they live in urban areas, in homes unsuited to their needs. Then, as they become frail, their need for community-based healthcare and homecare often goes unmet. Consequently, many end up in expensive nursing homes prematurely.

With this backdrop, I recently published Rethinking Housing Options for Senior Citizens - Retirement Villages in Every Irish Community making the case for establishing Retirement Villages in every community. The book, which draws heavily on Irish and international research, also outlines what is required to establish such villages appropriately. A pdf version of the book is available free here.

Interestingly, the development of retirement villages would not require state funding and, on balance, has the potential to generate savings for the state — while improving senior citizen’s quality of life, enhancing social capital and cohesion, and freeing up homes for family formation.

In Australia, where I lived for many years, 13% over 60s live in such villages and I believe it greatly enhances their quality of life. A similar proportion of older New Zealanders live in retirement villages. Research shows that a comparable proportion of our older people would be interested in living in such villages.

In my opinion, every community needs a retirement village of some kind and there are several different models to choose from. There are two very fine examples of what can be done locally — McAuley Place in Naas and Ryan’s Field in Newbridge. That said, I believe we can do even better today.

Retirement villages, to be successful, must be located close to all amenities — social, religious, hospitality, retail, transport, etc. Thus, we a need a new zoning category to ensure they are developed at the heart of communities. We also need legislation and standards to ensure that people at a vulnerable stage in their lives are protected. Australia has legislation governing retirement villages since the 90s.

Pat O'Mahony is the founder of Retirement Villages Ireland. 

Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy