I agree - and I've seen a similar phenomena amongst people who have to
move to assisted living for health reasons.

Living at home, as their health or mental accuity has declined, people
so often get isolated. They are lonely, they are bored, they are in a
rut, they are cut off from interaction and amusement. They spend their
days listless and hanging around with not much to do to give
themselves focus or purpose. They are also often in no condition to
arrange for participation in hobbies, social activities, or other
sources of stimulation and entertainment that would get them doing
things, talking to people, moving around, challenged, engaged in life.

The beauty of a good day care or assisted living facility is that
someone else does the scut work to make fun things happen, and the
participant gets the enjoyable part. I've known several older people
who were mentally intact but had to go to assisted living for physical
reasons and fought it tooth and nail - but once they got there, they
LOVED it. They'd forgotten how much fun life can be just being active
and involved.

I think a lot of the resistance is fear of change and being pushed out
of the comfort zone - but once you get over the "hump" the person can
really benefit and blossom, and it can make a huge difference to
quality of life. Certainly beats zoning out in front of the tube for
the last few years of your life!

Mary G.