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Older people feel safer in retirement villages: study

Australian Broadcasting Corporation, August 6, 2003

A new study has found that older people feel safer living in retirement villages than in their former homes.

Queensland University of Technology senior lecturer Robert Thornton says his research focuses on how older people view their lives and surroundings.

He says the findings suggest many of those surveyed largely reject change and consider themselves most secure in predictable environments.

"The older people in my study perceived that there was declining community standards in the areas they were currently living in, that they were unable to access the community services they wanted, that ... from a personal point of view, they felt insecure, and there were also some health related issues," Mr Thornton said.

"The issue was, very much, the perception - that is, it was their interpretation, and the way I look at the term 'security' was that the older people were looking for the predictable social and physical environment, and in their former home often their perception was that that no longer could be attained."