PATHWAYS BETWEEN NEIGHBOURHOOD EXPERIENCES AND MENTAL HEALTH AMONGST COMMUNITY-DWELLING OLDER ADULTS: TOWARDS AN URBAN COMMUNITY GERONTOLOGY

Abstract

In East and Southeast Asia, a large proportion of the burgeoning, ageing population will live in high-rise, high-density residential environments. This research aimed to facilitate the retrofitting of these environments for the wellbeing of community-dwelling older adults. A transdisciplinary framework identified mental health as the main aspect of health affected by neighbourhood health processes. Correlations were found between older people’s neighbourhood experiences and positive mental health, which may be attributed to processes of embeddedness-interpersonal skills and communal affordance-emotional support. Moderating effect of neighbourhood-level geriatric depression was found, suggesting contextual preconditions to the neighbourhood health processes. Local incidents and local actors played a part in shaping the mental health atmosphere of high-rise, high-density neighbourhoods. These necessitated an urban community gerontology that finds its basis in the mental health atmosphere theory. Its implications on urban design and community planning practices were discussed in the context of Singapore’s public housing neighbourhoods.