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For Immediate Release NEW RESOURCE RECOMMENDS STRATEGIES TO MEET THE ENVIRONMENTAL NEEDS OF AN AGING POPULATION (BALTIMORE, MD)––The aging of the population and the rising average life span are transforming current perspectives on growing older, retirement, and senior living communities. To ensure that environments meet the changing needs of older adults, a reconception of housing, communities, and neighborhoods is required. A new, interdisciplinary resource, Re-creating Neighborhoods for Successful Aging (Health Professions Press, Inc., 2008), provides a vital foundation for confronting this pressing challenge. Drawing from the fields of gerontology, health sciences, community planning, landscape architecture, and environmental design, Re-creating Neighborhoods for Successful Aging provides an in-depth examination of current elder housing practices and strategies. Housing models, such as continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs), shared housing, and co-housing, are evaluated, and best practice recommendations are presented. The book also covers important topics like the retrofitting of naturally occurring retirement communities (NORCs), the benefits of green environments, and the challenges posed by America’s automobile-dependent suburban communities. Edited by four experts from diverse professional backgrounds, the book is an outgrowth of a wish to stimulate greater collaboration among the medical, health, environmental, design, and planning professions. Pauline S. Abbott, Ph.D., is the Director of the California State University Fullerton Institute of Gerontology and the Ruby Gerontology Center. Nancy Carman, M.A., C.M.C., is the Director of Marketing Services for New Life Management & Development, Inc., a national consulting firm focusing on CCRCs. Jack Carman, FASLA, President of Design for Generations, LLC, is a landscape architect specializing in the design and development of therapeutic gardens and landscapes for senior communities and health care facilities. Bob Scarfo, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Interdisciplinary Design Institute at Washington State University Spokane. Co-editor Bob Scarfo says, “we believe that greater collaboration among health and built environment practitioners will promote increased opportunities for people of all ages to actively engage in their communities, expand their creativity, and develop spiritually.” The book is a useful resource for gerontologists, public health professionals, senior living administrators, rural and urban planners, architects, landscape architects, and policy makers. The book has been praised by experts in the field. Architect Robert H. McNulty, J.D., hails Re-creating Neighborhoods for Successful Aging as a "landmark work at a particular time of need," while gerontologist Charles F. Longino, Jr., Ph.D., describes it as "an eagerly awaited volume that speaks to the person–environment fit in old age." ###
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