From deluxe RSAs to residences with yoga, podcasts and design: Italy rewrites old age between comfort, relationships and dignity, without giving up true affection.
At retirement home windows you can see the sea and further away the coast appears Monte Pellegrinowhat Goethe he had defined it as “the most beautiful promontory in the world”. We’re in Sicilyin the province of Palermo. Moving on to Bresciain the common room of the five-star residence Vittoria (group Korian) we find a grand piano, designer armchairs And frescoed wallsperfectly restored.
An Italy that is aging but not giving up
There is an Italy that gets oldbut he doesn’t want to do it anymore sad deserted corridors And televisions turned on and talking to nothing. The world of “new hospices” is transforming with astonishing speed, and the residences for the elderly which are beginning to arise throughout Italy, from North to South, are inspired by American models that we have seen on television for many years: they promise comfort, luxury, relations And many activities.
Pleasure for the eyes, mind and spirit, to the point that the old image of hospices and RSAs it is no longer the only option, the already written end of a life where there seems to be no place for the old – in a society made up of tiny houses and broken up families.
The wellness revolution
In this new typology of very welcoming residencesOften deluxethe logic has been reversed: the elderly is no longer a passive patientbut a person with desires and relationshipsThat yoga practice, record podcasts, play with animalsha beautician and hairdresser available and lives in junior suites furnished to your liking.
And he can also choose flexible assistance formulasfrom the simple “protected apartments” at social housing on the model American and Britishuntil 24-hour healthcare supportbut always in the name of dignity.
«We must not think of the elderly as a subject who no longer sees beauty and no longer even perceives the quality of life» says a Panorama Renzo Rozzinipsychiatrist and director of the “Wellbeing, health, longevity” program of the Poliambulance Foundation-Brescia Hospital Institute.
«Today’s eighty-year-olds are men and women born after the warindividuals who grew up in affluence, in a rapidly expanding welfare and medical system. Let’s take women for example: they experienced 1968, experienced sexual liberation and built their identity beyond traditional roles. Obviously they want to continue to realize themselves. The culture with which we read and manage old age must now evolve at the same speed as reality**.”
Elderly people as active protagonists
Equally obvious is that these “new users”, wealthy and of high cultural levelbring with them another type of question: no longer just assistance for serious disabilitiesbut relationships, stimuli and all-round quality of life.
«A dear friend, director of an RSA, always repeats that this change entails complicated challenges» he says again Rozzini.
«The entire setting of the hospices must be changedstarting with menuwhich must no longer be designed only for those who need complex care, because now people come to Rsa who want to choose what to eat. And hospices are rightly transformed: the idea is to build places that slow down cognitive declineenvironments where the elderly can make connections».
The science of happy aging
THE’aging it is a biological process, of course, but determined by social conditions: studies tell us that only the 30 percent is geneticwhile the rest is environment, health, social conditions and lifestyles. It is no coincidence that in Japan you live on average 5 years more than in the United States.
«It is the social network that makes the difference: adequate housing, relationships, culture, social protection” concludes the psychiatrist.
«Italy, for example, has a model shaped by Catholicism and an idea of family care that other countries do not have. But this model is changing rapidly, because families, habits are changing and society is also changing».
Cinema, TV series and new image of old age
After all, even the world of cinema and of television series ride the wave of change, hey great actors which once – at a certain age – were set aside, today they interpret lively old people in retirement homes: just think about Ben Kingsley, Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnanwhich remained at the top of the charts on streaming platforms for weeks with The Thursday crime cluba film set in a extra luxury hospice in the English countryside.
The plot: some old men enjoy solving murders while they organize bridge tournamentsthey do golf and yogathey live in apartments equipped with every comfortincluding the Kitchen for those who love to do cakes for the birthday parties of the “conscripts”.
Italian residences align with the international model
Here, without getting to these Hollywood extremesor al super luxury of theInspire Carnegie Hill in the’Upper East Side of New Yorkresidence for the elderly with three restaurants and top chefs, very high level cellar And croissants baked every morning from the famous French venue Balthazardo not believe that the Italian reality is then very different.
«Today the residence for the elderly is a participatory, non-imposing place» he says Giuseppe Mottageneral manager of Anni Azzurri residencesof the group Kospresent in Italy with 59 facilities for the elderly in 11 regions.
«We have internal committees made up of guests that contribute to the organization of daily life, e occupational therapies that they understand music therapy, orthotherapy, pet therapy and much more. Great effort also goes in the direction of considering the Rsa an open place which has exchanges with the community and other generations: this year our guests even became protagonists of a podcast, Grandparents for everyone. We listened and collected the extraordinary heritage of their memories and we turned it into fairy tales for childrenwhich they themselves have read and recorded».
A third age without boredom
And so on manicure sessions, Halloween parties, board games (in Blue Years they even created one from scratch, it’s called AzzurraMente and includes a trio of games for keep the brain active), water aerobics and much more, there is no room for boredom and not even for the depressionin these dream retirement homes where also the doctor And available night and day.
The two speeds of old age
But there is a long way to go to get to this ideal of third age it’s still a lot. The reality remains double speed: next to excellent facilitiescontinue to exist homes for the elderly who are not up to par and caregiver forced to do the somersaults.
THE prices for the five star hospices they are understandably very high (we speak of rates starting from 2,500 euros per month and reaching more than 5 thousand), while i OECD data they tell us that our country is among the last in Europe as for beds for the elderly.
Lots of demand, little supply. Old age is expensivebut investing resources is worth it.
Human value remains central
As long as the luxury you don’t become a alibi and don’t indulge in the fact that elderly people are fine with their own business in these super deluxe residences, among labrador cuddles, podcasts and massages in 5-star spas…
Why the affection of children and grandchildrenthat, it’s just priceless.
