Hastings Center News

Watch the Livestream: Aging in [A] Place Symposium

Public discussion and policy often cite “aging in place” as a way to improve quality of life for older people and reduce costs. However, in part because of socioeconomic differences and structural inequalities, not all older adults can live in or move to age-supportive communities, neighborhoods, or homes that match their values and needs.

These challenges are the focus of a public event cosponsored by The Hastings Center and the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies on Friday, October 18, at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Watch the livestream.

Among the questions that the symposium will explore are: Who does and does not have access to age-friendly communities, accessible housing to prolong independence, and sufficient funds to cover housing and care? How can planners, policymakers, designers, and citizens make progress on social inequalities among older adults through planning and design?

Hastings Center president Mildred Solomon and research scholar Nancy Berlinger will speak at the event. It is part of a Hastings Center project on informing policy and practice in aging societies, with a  focus on reducing inequality in late life.  “While bioethics tends to look to health care and financing for solutions, policy research suggests that reducing aging-related inequalities also calls for attention to housing, the built environment, and social spending. The involvement of the private sector and of community members in planning and design decisions has ethical dimensions, too,” says Berlinger. “For example, if decisions about land use favor housing that is not affordable or accessible to local residents on fixed incomes, how do we recognize this as a justice problem? How can we reframe our ideas about what makes a community a good place to live? Partnering with the Joint Center for Housing Studies, which produces the authoritative report on aging and housing in America, offers fresh ways for bioethics to look at justice in aging and to respond to the needs of aging societies.” 

This event is made possible by a generous grant to The Hastings Center from The Robert W. Wilson Charitable Trust as part of its visionary support for the Center’s research and public engagement on ethical challenges facing aging societies.

The symposium is free to attend and will be livestreamed. Learn more and register here. Join the conversation on Twitter: #AgingInAPlace.