* Why Senior Living Couples unit should have 2 rooms?
* Why elderly couples need two separate rooms in retirement homes?
These are questions and answers which we learn from experience.
As we grow older we develop our own patterns of daily living, one of them is need for personal space.
Many senior living projects in India were initially planned and constructed based on the model of single room units. This was primarily due to cost constraints and to a certain extent lack of understanding of the varied needs of elderly couples.
As the industry grew and the learnings were implemented, developers and facility operators started realising the importance of converting single room units into two room suites.
The logical reasoning is simple, a couple who has spent 40-50 years together want their own individual spaces. I guess too much love can be acidic, at the same time no two people can live in a confined space for eternity.
This acidic situation happens because of Corrosive Nature’s of two different people living in the same room on a 24×7 basis. As an individual, a single elderly person can be seen to be happy but the moment he or she is put in the same room with the other partner, fireworks starts. This is where the importance of two separate rooms in senior living comes into the picture.
Be it watching TV, socializing with close friends, sleep habits or simply not wanting to step on each other toes, every individual needs personal space.
Sometimes the collective Ageing process of couples can be a conflict of personalities, as a result the living situation becomes like “can’t live together yet can’t leave each other”.
There are many cases where elderly couples simply live together because of compulsion rather than out of happiness. The larger point of debate is, as planners how seriously do we look at person-centered care for couples? Do we club the couple needs as one family need or do we respect each individual for who he or she is?
There is very limited research on the percentage of couples versus single elderly who live in senior living facilities, however if some researcher or an organisation puts in a little bit of effort, I am sure the insights will be interesting.
If affordability is not much of an issue, then in my opinion a simple wall within a senior living unit can probably help maintain the balance of equilibrium for elderly couples.
Pankaj Mehrotra