Age-Friendly Communities
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More people are living longer. However, ageing well calls for a supportive environment to address barriers across all dimensions of social and physical environment. Age-friendliness is about including everyone and enabling them to take part, regardless of age, and calls for a joined-up approach.
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Age-Friendly Communities
- 2. 2 Why do communities need to be age-friendly? More people are living longer Choice / challenge to treat older people as assets rather than burdens Ageing well requires a supportive environment – not just about individuals Need to address barriers across all dimensions of social and physical environment – joined-up approach Age-friendliness is about including everyone and enabling them to take part regardless of age – not age-segregated
- 3. 3 Age-friendly Communities World Health Organisation (WHO) framework to tackle ageing through a system-wide, place-based approach Global Network currently has over 380 communities across 37 countries A cycle of continuous improvement through which communities plan, implement and review progress over time Public or voluntary sector led, but must have local political commitment and involve older residents Uses eight interlinking domains to look at both the built and social environment
- 4. 4 WHO Age-friendly Framework The Built Environment The Social Environment
- 5. 5 Why are age-friendly communities important? Promotes preventative approaches Encourages action on all aspects of the local system Joins up different dimensions within a place Age-friendly communities contribute to wellbeing through enabling people to stay active and connected reducing barriers to continued participation and contribution (employment, caring, volunteering etc.) when abilities decline
- 6. 6 The UK Network of Age-Friendly Communities We are providing support to the UK network to enable members to connect and learn from each other and elsewhere, and to encourage others to adopt the approach Our Work 6 Sharing what works We will work with and support places to measure and evaluate their work, and develop and test innovative new approaches. We will share what we learn with other areas, and with policy makers.
- 7. 7 Jessica Entwistle Jessica.entwistle@ageing-better.org.uk @JeckEnt Centre for Ageing Better Angel Building, Level 3 407 St John Street, London, EC1V 4AD 020 3829 0113 www.ageing-better.org.uk Registered Company Number: 8838490 & Charity Registration Number: 1160741Presentation Title: Lorem Ipsum
Editor's Notes
- Across the country demographics are changing and the percentage of older population is rising. Significant challenges for local authorities and health services with the rising cost of care means that prevention and early intervention need to be strategic drive of areas in order to meet the needs of their demographics. Part of this should be utilising older people as assets to their communities rather than seeing them as burdens on the system. Individuals are important but equally so is the environment that they live in. A joined up approach is needed to address all aspects of communities to be more supportive of this demographic change. It is important that this work does not segregate age groups but brings different generations together to tackle this issue.
- The World Health Organisation Age-friendly Cities: A guide published in 2006 and the Global Network of Age-friendly Cities launched in Dublin 2011. Recognising the international issue of an ageing demographic and the need for urban areas to plan for this to ensure environments were inclusive and accessible for our ageing populations. The network was revised to include communities in addition to cities to reflect growing interest from smaller towns and rural communities. The programme went from strength to strength with well over 300 cities and communities signing up, striving to become age-friendly and becoming a member of a global network. (Canada has well over a 1,000 but not all signed up to global network) Age-friendly is not an accreditation or ‘destination’ as all communities start from different places, rather it is about striving to become more age-friendly, and to take continual steps in that direction A variety of different organisations lead age-friendly work but all communities that sign up need a local political commitment from the highest electable (or mandated) officer to join the global network.
- The eight domains all interlink but can be broadly broken into two spheres – the social and the built environment Outdoor spaces and buildings: the outside environment significantly impacts on the mobility, independence and quality of life of older people and affects their ability to age in place. Transportation: accessible and affordable transportation enables older people to move around a city and influences social and civic participation and access to community and health services. Housing: appropriate and affordable housing influences the independence and quality of life of older people and enables them to age safely within the community. Social Participation: having opportunities to participate in leisure, social, cultural and spiritual activities in the community, and within the family, allows older people to exercise their competence, enjoy respect and esteem and to build and maintain relationships. Respect and Social Inclusion: creating environments where older people are respected, recognised and included in the community and the family. Civic Participation and Employment: ensuring older people have the opportunities to continue to contribute to their communities through paid work or volunteering and to be engaged in the political process. Communication and Information: supporting older people to stay connected with events and people and have ready access to relevant information in a variety of forms. Community Support and Health Services: having access to health and support services that are affordable, of good quality and appropriate is vital for older people to maintain health and independence in the community.
- The age-friendly framework allows for holistic planning looking at all aspects of a community to assist with preventative work. It allows local areas to use a framework to shape bespoke working to their local areas taking into consideration a place based context. Age-friendly communities contribute to the wellbeing of an older population by supporting people who are more active , and reducing barriers for those whose abilities are declining.
- The existing UK Network of Age-friendly Communities has around 20 places but has struggled with a lack of funding and consistent support, the Centre for Ageing Better in collaboration with members of the network has committed to provide support to the network to: feed learning into and out of the network , document age-friendly practice , broker collaboration between Centre for Ageing Better and network members and foster learning across the network. We are doing this as part of a broader local approach to ageing to encourage place-based, local solutions and to help communities adapt to their changing demographics