Place Therapies for Older Adults: Conceptual and Interventive Approaches

Abstract

The study of place transitions—moves between places as well as changes occurring in environments of elders who age in place—is a relatively new, diverse research area of high relevance for adult developmentalists and gerontologists. This article explores the usefulness of a tractable model of environmental stress and proposes three potential “ place therapies” that may minimize the negative impacts of place transitions upon older adults. Specifically, a transactional model of environmental stress linked to behavior setting theory is proposed for understanding both positive and negative outcomes associated with different kinds of place transitions. Three distinct “ place therapies” are considered as interventions that may hold promise for preventing, ameliorating, and enriching the diverse impacts of place transitions on older adults and their environmental milieu.