Choosing a Retirement Community. Perspectives from a 40 year Gerontologist – Part 1
October 23, 2026
Jeff Bassett, Gerontologist, has worked in the aging services, senior living, and senior health care fields for 40 years. We asked Jeff what people should look for or consider when researching a retirement community.
“Having worked for a variety of organizations in several states, I noticed that the overall care provided by communities that were ‘not for profit’ and had a ‘faith based tradition’ of some sort, was of a higher quality, in comparison to those communities that were owned by a for profit corporation and/or were managed by an off-site management company.
Those communities that had higher levels of staffing in their independent living activity departments, tended to provide more robust acitivity calendars. It’s something seniors often fail to ask, when looking for a retirement community for themselves or a loved one.
A retirement community’s location is something people sometimes overlook. I would not advise an older person to live in a retirement community near the Atlantic or Gulf coasts due to the potential hurricane threats. Having to evacuate an entire community is a massive undertaking, and can cause residents and their family members a great deal of stress and hardship.
I noticed that residents who lived in retirement communitues that were more rural, or located further from necessary/needed services as they aged, experienced more feelings of isolation”.
