Assisted Living Facilities

Many assisted living facilities (ALFs) are far from ideally designed or equipped for the purpose. Residents tend to be spatially isolated from each other, and from caregivers and care resources, by conventional institutional architecture. Truly disability-friendly living areas, appliances and furnishings are surprisingly scarce. Advanced communication, mobility and monitoring systems are even more rare. The major roadblock is a lack of knowledge about and standards for assistive environments, on the part of architects, builders, interior designers, and the ALF industry itself.

Private Residences

Research indicates that 85% of Americans prefer to remain in their own homes as they grow older.¹ Debilitations, however, often force them out of houses and apartments that fail to meet their evolving needs or those of their caregivers. Yet a relatively few design changes can make homes livable for people with widely different (or changing) abilities. This is one of the goals of the Universal Design movement, to make "products and environments usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design."²

Where specialized design and products are called for, homes can be built "assistive-ready" to allow straightforward, affordable retrofitting and adaptation.

Keeping homes livable for people as they age addresses not only their preferences, it also represents a more efficient use of an aging society's resources, reducing health and life care costs while also helping to relieve a growing caregiver shortage.

¹ "Fixing to Stay" A National Survey of Housing and Home Modification Issues.
   2000. See the Article. (Adobe's free Reader is required to view this article.
   Get the Reader.)

² The Center for Universal Design, North Carolina State University School of
   Design, www.design.ncsu.edu/cud/.

The CALI Approach

The key to promoting innovation in assistive environments, in both ALFs and private homes, is establishing a central knowledge and standards authority for the assisted living and housing industries. CALI is working with leading architects, developers, and life care providers to create such standards. Please see the Certification page for more on CALI's standards development initiative.