It has been the Swedish tradition to focus on housing in developing strategies to meet the challenges of a greying society. The concept of “aging in place” is defined in Sweden as living in the same apartment after renovation, but now it has a broader meaning - to be able to remain in the regular housing instead of being forced to move to some form of institution. During the 1960s and ‘70s a tradition of community work within social work emerged, inspired primarily by community development projects in the U.S., England and The Netherlands. Participation of social services in community planning is a means to reach this ambition. In the current debate concerning housing for the elderly, there is a goal in Sweden to find the new concept for future elder housing – an idea that could be implemented all over and where the government could allocate subsidies to stimulate the building of senior housing. This is the typical Swedish way. A big challenge to the future structure of welfare for the elderly lies in the ability to strengthen the potential for individual initiatives and mutual help. This will likely develop best in places where the young and old already live and where relationships have developed over many years – in other words, in “normal” residential areas. Proximity of services will not be enough without social integration being a focus. Sweden has experience of developing models for community planning with social goals. To plan accordingly for an aging-friendly society history really matters to learn from earlier mistakes that was far too managed from the top. The challenge lies in developing new strategies in order to encourage the participation and engagement of the elderly in a process managed from the bottom.

Sweden is often characterized as a role model for a country with high levels of taxation and asocial policy system of universal welfare schemes with the goal of helping people across the lifespan to maintain independence and integration into the community. An overall aim is that all older people should have equal access of care and services despite age, sex, ethnicity, or financial situation. It has been assumed that civil society is weak in the Swedish kind o strong welfare system . Research, however, has shown that Sweden has scored relatively highly when it comes to civil society vitality in the form of volunteering in organizations and informal help and care-giving 1992-2009. Sweden gives an example of a country where there does not seem to be any simple contradiction between having a vital civil society and a welfare state including a substantial public sector. Demographic changes of an increasingly aging population will, nevertheless, lead to challenges for the formal care system to further support and promote the continuation of volunteering as well as informal care-giving.

In the future, an increased number of the elderly with their vulnerability related to aging will demand more multidisciplinary and innovative approaches toward their care. A course called "Care of the Elderly from a European Perspective" has been developed in collaboration among several European universities with the aim of providing an opportunity for students to increase their mutual understanding of elder care. The course is based on phenomenographic research and collaborative learning as a pedagogical approach. Learning should be thought of as an active research and problem-solving process, to which interaction and dialogue are central. The technical learning environment is based on software and web conferences through which students and teachers can communicate one-to-one or as a group. By working together in international groups, students learn to analyze differences among countries: How do cultural, social, economic, and geographical circumstances affect the quality of life? They also learn to understand ways in which different health professionals can cooperate better in the care of the elderly.