미국과 캐나다 노인밀집 소도시의 형성과정과 한국에 대한 시사점

This study has been performed to explore process of forming Senior Zones in rural counties of America and Canada and their future implications for Korea. In this study, five elderly zones in non-metropolitan counties of California and Ontario State such as Weed, Paradise, Bowmanville, Wellington on the Lake, and Trenton were visited and elderly residents and service experts were interviewed. The Senior Zones were formed primarily from influx of rural residents for the purpose of seeking warmful localities, traffic connections, and business purposes in theme focused production areas. On the other hand, residential lives in the zones are occasionally negatively influenced by unbalanced concentrations of elderly facilities such as nursing stations and funeral homes. For the future of Korean rural elderly policies, suggestions are made as follows: first, nationwide survey needs to be done in order to predict suitable locations of senior zones, and model town needs to be initiated as a measure of evaluating adaptation process. Second, cooperation system among governmental ministries needs to be formed in order to integrate a long term master plan of establishing traditional rural town of independent housing districts. Third, productive and active lifestyles need to be maintained by limiting expansion of nursing related facilities around the independent areas.