Housing with care for older people

Introduction

The growing interest and investment in models of housing with care for older people reflect high hopes for what they can achieve - the promotion of independence and privacy, reduction of social isolation, improvement in quality of life, and provision of a viable alternative to residential or institutional models of care. However, the evidence base in this field is still developing, and JRF is committed to playing a role in contributing to this through both research and demonstration.

These issues are hugely relevant to JRHT, with two recently established housing with care schemes in Hartlepool and Scarborough, and the first continuing care retirement community in the UK, Hartrigg Oaks in York. These schemes enable us to assess the new opportunities and challenges in the context of public policy focus on choice, control and independent living.

Key issues

• Housing with care is a significant area of growth: by mid 2010, there were approximately 45,000 units of extra care housing in England (figure calculated by the EAC), however, it is still a minority provision among all housing options for older people.
• The evidence base, although growing, is still very limited tends to be stronger in areas such as satisfaction with housing.
• Much less robust research is available on how specialised housing impacts on long term health and well-being outcomes, the extent to which schemes can support people with dementia, and the affordability and cost-effectiveness of different models.

Overview

Housing with care has been a key area of research for JRF since the establishment of Hartrigg Oaks in the late 1990's. Whist earlier research focused on this particular scheme, later studies have explored aspects of the wider context, including a comparison of different models, the promotion of social well-being; and more recently, the costs and outcomes of moving into an extra care housing scheme.

JRF also funded a review of extra care housing and people with dementia by the Housing and Dementia Research Consortium. There are two other recent research projects - telling the story of Hartfields (JRF scheme in Hartlepool), and another looking at social well-being in a number of new extra care schemes and villages, have engaged with the experience of living in housing with care.

A new programme of work on housing with care started at the beginning of 2011, under the overall frameworkof 'A Better Life'. Three major projects continue to examine key aspects of living in housing with care schemes, which a particular focus on older people who have, or are developing, high support needs. The projects are: 

• 'Affordability, choice and quality of life in housing with care.'
• 'Whose responsibility? Boundaries of roles and repsonsibilities in housing with care schemes'
• 'Living together, getting along'.

All three projects are due in the second half of 2011. Further information is available here.