Book: Aging Successfully in the “Right” Place Should Be the Goal

University of Florida Professor Stephen M. Golant has a new book, Aging in the Right Place.  The gerontologist advocates examining a host of modern options, and urges resistance to an overly simplistic mantra of “aging in place” as the only goal.  For example, he examines assisted living, co-housing, supported “independent living” environments, the “village” movement and CCRCs.  

Interviewed for a Washington Post article, Golant explained:

“It’s not an all-or-nothing situation, obviously,” Golant said in an interview about aging-in-place. “But I just wanted to point out the imperfections, and the weaknesses in some of the arguments. . .I want to point out that sometimes there’s too much hype.”

It’s the sort of hype that has surrounded what he calls the New Gerontology, a long running trend that sometimes seems to imply that if people follow certain regimens of diet, physical exercise, social activity and cognitive training, they might avoid aging altogether.

As I have also suggested here, it is important for individuals and families to be realistic about what it will take to stay at home safely, making it important to be open to a larger definition of “home” in order to emphasize better quality of life.