“There Is Nothing Like Our Own Home”: Older Adults' Experiences of Aging in Place in the Eastern Black Sea Mountains

The high mountainous regions of Türkiye face intense pressures from sociospatial transformations, youth outmigration, and climate change. This study explored the lived experiences of older adults aging in place in high-elevation Hemsşin Municipality, Eastern Black Sea Mountains, focusing on the interplay among demographic decline, infrastructural constraints, and climate exposure. Semistructured interviews with 15 older adults were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis, generating 4 themes: moral commitment and identity in later life, community under demographic pressure, health and infrastructure vulnerability in a vertical landscape, and climate change as a disruption of seasonal order and livelihood continuity. The study provides situated qualitative insights into how older adults perceive and navigate these pressures within a specific mountain municipality. Findings reveal a critical duality: The community maintains socioecological resilience rooted in place attachment, social solidarity, and independent living, yet this resilience is severely compromised by infrastructural voids in health care and transportation, as well as unfavorable centrally determined policies. The study recommends climate-sensitive adaptation strategies that prioritize filling these voids and reforming policies to formally recognize and support older adults' resilience in vulnerable mountain settings.