This paper compares and contrasts the effects of a radical involuntary relocation of elderly patients vs. the effects of a more moderate involuntary relocation that involved only a change in the physical environment. Effects are described in terms of mortality rates, self-perceived changes in health, relationships with others, and activity patterns as well as changes in level of behavioral complexity. On all measures the radical-change group fared more poorly than did the moderate-change group, which suggests that a weighty source of the variance in relocation effects is the degree of environmental change involved.