The Aging-in-Community Network
This pattern is shaped by
Problem
When aging in place depends entirely on the individual dwelling, isolated elders become prisoners in their own homes — technically housed but functionally cut off from community, services, and daily social contact. The building is accessible but the neighborhood isn't.
Evidence and Discussion
Aging in community — rather than aging in place — recognizes that the individual home is necessary but not sufficient. The elder needs walkable access to a primary care clinic, a pharmacy, a grocery store, a gathering place, and at least one daily social contact that doesn't require driving or a scheduled appointment.
Therefore
organize the aging-in-community network as a cluster of services and social infrastructure within a ten-minute walk of housing designed for all ages: a primary care clinic, a pharmacy, a grocery store, a gathering place with daily programming, and a volunteer visiting network. The network succeeds when an elder can fill a day without a car and without advance planning — a walk to the store in the morning, lunch at the community center, a visit to the clinic in the afternoon. This is not a retirement community; it is a neighborhood where retirement is possible.