Service integrated housing for Australians in later life

A national and international analysis

• Andrew Jones, and others
• Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute

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Image: mtsofan / Flickr

07 January 2010The aim of the study is to analyse the diversity and types of service integrated housing that have been developed in Australia, and to consider the policy and research implications. It includes examination of the implications of international experience with service integrated housing for Australia. The term service integrated housing refers to:

"all forms of housing for people in later life where the housing provider deliberately makes available or arranges for one or more types of support and care, in conjunction with the housing provision."

Interest in this form of housing provision derives from the ageing of the Australian population, and the impacts of disability and frailty on the capacity of many individuals and households to manage the tasks of daily life in the domestic housing environment without support. While the majority of those in need of assistance live in the general community with care from formal services and /or family or other informal carers, a proportion live in a range of purpose-built housing for older people that also provides varying levels of support and care services. Little systematic information is available on these forms of housing and the services they provide, but there is increasing recognition that as the period of later life for many Australians lengthens, and as the overall number of older Australians grows, greater consideration needs to be given to the range of housing and care choices available to older Australians. 

Authors: Andrew Jones, Anna Howe, Cheryl Tilse, Helen Bartlett, Bob Stimson.

Image: 'New Beads' mtsofan / Flickr