But if you think that most "living facilities", even when "fully staffed" are a good place to leave an older person without regular visits, I am going to disagree with you.

My mom volunteers for Meals on Wheels (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meals_on_Wheels), and a lot of the people they deliver to are in decent enough health, but just sort of trapped in suburban apartment complexes. They end up surviving through a mixture of charities like that one, and relatives who drive them around and bring them things. But many end up moving to assisted-living facilities after a bit, even though they don't truly need to live in a staffed facility, because the logistics of living in suburbia without a car are just unworkable, and they either don't know about or can't afford a more walkable area to move to.

Also, because Medicare covers nursing homes for people who can't take care of themselves (considered a medical expense) but not the lower-key assisted-living facilities (considered a residential expense, and more likely to be abused), people who run out of money when living in an assisted-living facility may be forced to move prematurely to a nursing home, if they aren't able to go back to living on their own. That ends up both worse for them and more expensive for the public.

A few comments from my perspective: the #1 killer of older adults in loneliness. They become isolated and are, frankly, forgotten. I see people here where I live have their spouse of 50-60-even 70 years die and they go into depression. A friend here had his wife pass away recently. Everyone made sure to include him in daily activities and conversations. Here it is not as bad because there are always people around to talk to and do things with. That is so important to older people who are alone. We are a social animal and need contact with other people. People here have group meals where 6 to 8 people put tables together and eat. Lots of stories and laughing. There are lots of social activities and events here too. As people age they do not want to leave their houses - mobility issues or cannot drive as well, so living here means getting out and seeing people is just a matter of opening the door and walking (or riding) down the hall to a public area where there are always people. I belong to several groups (watercolors, table tennis, and ukulele) and my spouse plays mahjong and bridge every day. People meet down the hall 2 or three evenings a week for sing-a-longs someone organized. We use the beautiful gym and pool a few steps away where there are exercise classes everyday.

It was hard giving up our nice house that was full of memories and things we were comfortable with but it had become a burden. Something always needed fixing. It was a cluttered, disorganized, and sometimes dirty mess. There were people in our neighborhood that had no friends and relatives. They were utterly alone every day with nothing but a TV, a phone and maybe a computer that confused the hell out of them. Very sad. Life can be a hassle. Moving here lifted a huge load off my and my wife's shoulders.

Not everyone of course can afford living the way we do. But you can.

If you haven't saved a nickel for your retirement, it is time to do so. Our savings over the years has allowed us to do what we are doing now and allows us to travel extensively all over the world. We have never been rich. At the time, it was hard to save. Because we did not have top level jobs, we had to sacrifice but it was, looking back, worth it because now we live a safe, dignified, interesting, and healthy life. And our kids do not have to worry about where to put Mom and Dad or to dispose of a house full of what they would consider junk. That has all been done. Our kids fully support our decision to come here to live. We live very simply without a lot of material possessions that just clutter things up.

So save your money and pray that we get politicians that realize that inflation is the enemy, the real enemy of older adults. A few years of what these clowns lie to us and call 'temporary inflation' and our hard earned savings will be gone and they will still have their mansions, servants, boats, and air planes. Think about that when you vote the next time.

To fully isolate you would need workers to go through quarantine periods before entering on shifts. Many vulnerable live at home so you'd have to provide support to isolate their cohabitants as well or something else. Physician specialists that serve vulnerable and non-vulnerable populations without enough overlap to split duties with similar doctors between both populations would need to operate inside a bubble boy setup or something.

The vulnerable also include people with pre-diabetes, heart conditions, etc. that may not be diagnosed, though maybe you just treat them as those not to be isolated.

If these people can't get enough human contact, we failed them. There's no reason we shouldn't be able to create meaningful interactions for the elderly.

There's no reason whatsoever they should be isolated.

There is not enough money left over of my dad's to pay for two experienced people or actual nurses to be here for the amount of time needed and pay the mortgage at the same time. A few of his children have dedicated quite a lot of time or money, but for those helping and for others, money is usually already allocated to their own families.

I think it was generally considered successful. People were in good health, it seemed like a genuine way to get older people to have a social life that isn't just playing games in some nursing home and it kept them self-reliant which gives people a lot of dignity.

I don't think there's really a clever answer to the philosophical loneliness that's also part of the article that people deal with even when they're around others but as far as physical and communal isolation goes I think projects that bring elderly people together and give them responsibility and active lives is a good thing. A necessary one even I think given the demographic changes almost every country goes through. Many 80+ year old women in particular will outlive their spouses.

More seriously, this town is a beautiful, compassionate idea and I'm glad it's there.

Here in the United States, the final years of a person's life are usually overwhelmingly expensive. Either paying many thousands of dollars per month in an assisted living facility, or paying almost nothing to a family member who sacrifices their own life for a time to provide care at home.

I've seen great results in mixed-generational care, where childcare and elder care have close interaction at least a couple of days per week. Amazing improvement in the elders living in relatively modest assisted living homes, and possible to provide at scale, more commonplace... But a global pandemic shut that down hard.

If you're old, self-isolation is the best thing.

You want to give the old folks, among who I am myself in this respect, something to live for. Attention is the catnip.

Want to kill the olds in droves? Isolate them.

I'm bloody serious about this and believe it's tort that needs a Court hearing for the human sake alone. You don't know anything until you friend all died. Mine did except for who then exited into a new world of economic paranoia and now hides in a regular job after increasingly failing to deal with isolation in the context of a young loving family around him at home at least. I'm so intensely proud of my buddy but he's a truly impractical link back to life for me

As you say you can expand the circle of isolation. All the at-risk patients (Say people over 65 and all adults with preexisting conditions). Then you isolate those people that they have to interact with. For example all staff at all nursing homes where any such person lives. But you quickly end up where you started. All the people who work in all the nursing homes have kids and spouses. They can't see those people when they aren't working, and then return to work with the risk group. They'd need to take their kids out of school for example (remember the point of all this is to make the rest of society work normally, schools are open). It's hard.

It's probably easier then to designate people as high risk "patients" and treat them with full protective clothing, move them to special homes where care can be given with more protection and so on. But that also requires 3 things: lots of staff, lots of protective gear, lots of time to set up. I don't think there is a surplus of any of those things. It might be something to consider for the long term.

The difficult situations I’m talking about were folks who didn’t need emergency intervention and weren’t hard cases. Rather folks who would wander out side the home looking for yard work to do and then hurt themselves because they thought they were 20, or who would try to go to union hall (that they used to go to), and then get lost on the way.

Those situations were much, much harder to handle than they looked from the outside, and caused immense stress on the caregivers relationship with their spouse (and them), required full time attention (which means no job and fewer social events or other outside activities), and while yes placed less strain on ‘the system’, were an immense strain on the people involved.

They still ended up having to go to care homes, as it eventually (after 5ish years) was too crushing a load.

I'm super grateful my grandmother was able to move to one of these communities while she was still on her feet and doing well. She started in a standalone house that she lived in by herself for about 10 years. With each subsequent step of her eventual decline, there was a smooth transition to a setup that was comfortable to her, and they took excellent care of her until she passed away.

Additionally, if we had people sit down and think about the situation, we would have protected and isolated the elderly instead of the insipid and endless all or nothing crusade we were handed instead.

<= 2 blocks from home

Bathroom facilities

Enough room for tables and chairs to accommodate ~5-15 people

Free or close to it

Completely enclosed, some form of A/C preferred

All that in a high density/high land value urban area. Like the old song goes, something's gotta give.