title: The evolution of 'Close Care' as user-led care of the elderly in the UK.
abstract: The chronic ailments of old age such as stroke, coronary heart disease, severe arthritis and loss of sight have traditionally found care only in a nursing home. Taking care to the family house or sheltered home has drawbacks because of inappropriate accommodation. There is now an alternative that also reflects changing expectations on the part of the elderly. 'Close Care' offers a solution to the crises of carer shortages and ever increasing nursing costs. It also responds to the growing consumerist power of the elderly who seek more choice, more control and higher standards. Habell's involvement in the early growth of private purpose-designed nursing homes pointed to an emerging demand for accommodation which the residents identified as home and over which they exercised choice and control. The elderly were moving from passive subjects of assessment and care to become a market with consumer tastes and power. Coining the phrase Close Care, the team encouraged Habell's architectural solutions to evolve into hybrid schemes, which broke new ground by seeking to provide as normal a home as possible while flexibly accommodating all the disabilities of old age. In effect Close Care offers an invisible or virtual nursing home where the elderly are motivated in self-help by stimulating surroundings, control of their environment, choice of support and knowledge that they have their own home for life among friends and helpers. Close Care offers a solution to the rising costs of nursing care, overcomes the alienation of institutional environments and offers a way of integrating alert but frail and even confused persons back into a normal community.
authors.affiliation: Maybourne Projects, Old School, Exton Street, London SE1 8UE, England. Maybourne@talk21.com
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Habell
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002908:Chronic Disease; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000592:standards*; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000592:standards*; D016852:Housing for the Elderly / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D020380:Needs Assessment; D006113:United Kingdom