Abstract
There is an undeniable increase in the number of aging adults who are utilizing assisted living facilities to delay transitioning into nursing homes in order to receive care in their older years. There has also been in recent years a growing interest in the importance of recognizing and preventing depression and depressive-like symptoms in the aging population. A transition from a home environment where one has potentially spent the majority of their life brings about its own set of emotions and stressors. This may undoubtedly create a variety of concerns to become apparent by current and future facility residents and the communities to which they belong. This qualitative research study sought to delve into current facility residents perceptions of facility living and whether the inclusion, or lack thereof, of homelike qualities was in any way related to their emotional wellbeing. Individual interviews were conducted face-to-face with eight persons residing in an assisted living facility. These interviews focused on several themes that were suggested through literature review: (1) the importance of feeling protected within the facility; (2) the perception of the size and scale of the facility and the impact that has on emotional wellbeing; and (3) the importance that a person places on the facility having a natural (homelike) feeling versus an institutional setting. Implications for social work and recommendations for future research are discussed in relation to these findings.