Suitability of the Residential Location of Older People: towards a Typology in Flanders, Belgium

Gruijthuijsen, Wesley and Vanneste, Dominique (2024) Suitability of the Residential Location of Older People: towards a Typology in Flanders, Belgium. KEEP ON PLANNING FOR THE REAL WORLD. Climate Change calls for Nature-based Solutions and Smart Technologies. Proceedings of REAL CORP 2024, 29th International Conference on Urban Development, Regional Planning and Information Society. pp. 543-556. ISSN 2521-3938

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Abstract

Ageing-in-place is often a desire among older individuals and a basic principle of the Flemish care policy, which emphasizes informal care. However, it can also be seen as a normative framework, especially when alternative residential options are lacking or hardly accepted. Our prior findings indicate that older parents in Flanders (Belgium) generally reside in close proximity to their children. Most informal care is provided within the family framework, mainly by partners or children. This does not mean that they are always available, willing to help, or asked for help. Therefore a suitable neighborhood with enough amenities is another crucial factor to facilitate living independently at older age. However, there is insufficient understanding about both the current living environment and residential mobility of older adults. While existing (inter)national literature suggests low residential mobility among older adults, detailed insights into specific moving patterns, such as the balancing act between housing, proximity to children and neighborhood characteristics, are lacking. A GIS analysis is conducted based on data 1) on facilities, such as supermarkets, bakeries and medical facilities, 2) and the residential location of older people retrieved from the national population register. The aim is to evaluate whether each older individual’s current residential location would support ageing-in-place, based on the assumption that this partly correlates with the availability of amenities and services. As a second step our research focused on the residential mobility between 2002 and 2017 and investigated whether those who changed their residential location did that towards a location that is (not) better equipped than the previous one. Our research shows that approximately one-fifth of older adults in Flanders (aged 65+ in 2002) changed their residential location between 2002 and 2017, excluding those who moved to nursing homes. While, in general, those who moved have improved their situation, complexities are revealed in terms of the living environment of those who did not move, asking for more research into the trade-off between housing, proximity to children and neighborhood amenities and services.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	older adults, neighbourhood amenities, moving, quantitative methods, Flanders
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HA Statistics H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Depositing User:	REAL CORP Administrator
Date Deposited:	29 Apr 2024 09:12
Last Modified:	10 May 2024 09:10
URI:	http://repository.corp.at/id/eprint/1120

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