Settings conducive to the provision of long-term care

A supportive social support network of friends and family is important to meet the long-term care needs of older people. Therefore, the goal of environmental design should be to design communities that are conducive to or even foster the provision of informal support to older residents by friends and family Naturally occurring retirement communities (NORCs) are presented as a model of settings conducive to the provision of long-term care. NORCs attract older people seeking the companionship of age peers in an age-integrated and safe setting convenient to shopping and services. In a similar vein, the New Urbanism contends that communities should be designed to foster a sense of community. Connections are central to the New Urbanism - connections of people to spaces that encourage connections among people. The NORC and New Urbanism concepts serve to validate each other and have similar goals: to make places more livable for people of all ages. As such, these communities are more conducive to the provision of long-term care.