By Paula Frakes, M.S.

Today is a beautiful spring day in early April in Minnesota. This morning I took a walk around my neighborhood in the Northern part of the metro area of the Twin Cities, looking for signs of spring. It was a sunny day the temperature was 39 degrees with a light breezy that had a slight “bite” to it. The birds were singing their varied mating and territorial songs.  Robins were busy hopping and flitting around searching for worms in the newly greening lawns and leaf cover. Signs of spring were ever present in the buds on the trees just beginning to emerge and various plants starting to peak out from underneath the leafy ground cover. The fresh air felt good as it brushed across my face helping to remind me that winter was over and warmer days will soon be here. Yes, these are the days that we all long for after a long cold winter.

But unfortunately a vast majority of the senior adults that live in the various senior housing environments do not have the opportunity to experience firsthand these soothing and invigorating natural experiences that remind us that spring is indeed here! Why is this all too common? There are many reasons but here are just a few…

  • The design and layout of the buildings do not have doors that allow for easy access to the outdoors for the seniors to go outside by themselves.
  • Landscaping and green space around senior facilities is a very low priority for the developers building and overseeing the design and layout on the site for the building. This is the first thing to be cut back on when budgeting for the building.

There is a lack of staff available to help accommodate taking the seniors outside and there is no encouragement or empowerment by the management to allow the staff to take them outside.

  • Many of the new build facilities being built are built on sites where there is limited or no green space allotted for around the building to begin with! I am seeing many new build facilities going up that are located right on busy highways or in retail spaces that has literally NO green space near the building.
  • There are no paved paths around the facility that allow for ease of walking around outside.
  • There are no patios or balconies that are accessible for the seniors or staff to get outside for fresh air or sunshine.
  • There is no space allotted for raised bed gardens or even containers in which the residents have access to interact with the soil and plant flowers, herbs or vegetables. Often if there are containers around the facility the residents are not allowed to plant them but they are “professionally” done or purchased so that they look absolutely perfect for marketing purposes.

In my experience I rarely see seniors outside of their living environments. In addition to the many reasons listed above there are many myths and fears that the seniors themselves have regarding going outside. It doesn’t help that our culture further perpetuates these fears that in many ways, I believe, are result of our overall cultural disconnect from nature. Author Richard Louv talks about this nature disconnect in his book “The Nature Principle” where he has coined the term “Nature Deficit Disorder” to describe how as a culture we have lost our relationship with nature and are suffering mentally, physically, socially and emotionally as a result. This has a serious side effect that I believe especially touches the residents that live in our senior housing environments and even the staff that work with the seniors. In the design/build side controlled by the developers in our industry I believe we need a paradigm shift in our priorities to make access to the outdoors and green spaces around the facilities a more important part of the total living environment we are creating for the seniors of today and into the future.