Director Irish Centre for Social Gerontology NUI Galway Respond Housing Association National Conference Dublin 23 October 2013 Inclusive communities opportunities and challenges in older age ID: 290538
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Thomas ScharfDirector, Irish Centre for Social Gerontology, NUI GalwayRespond! Housing Association National ConferenceDublin, 23 October 2013
Inclusive communities: opportunities and challenges in older ageSlide2
Irish Centre for Social Gerontology
Research on ageing and the life course
Informing policy and practice
Education and trainingSlide3
Places where people ageDifferent types of communityDifferent types of housingInstitutional and non-institutional settingsDifferent types of peopleWhat makes places good places to age in?Ageing and place: a major focusSlide4
Inclusive communities start at ‘home’“Home is territory – a place of possession and ownership that may be fiercely defended. Home is a place of safety and security. Often, home is the spatial fulcrum of our life, a place of centering that may become the core of our being and a location from which we venture forth into a potentially hostile world outside and beyond and to which we return for shelter. Home is a place of freedom, a location where we can let go and be ourselves” (Rowles, 2003: 115)Slide5
‘Home’ seems to matter more as people ageBut feeling at ‘home’ can be challenged in hostile communitiesInclusive communities reach beyond ‘home’Slide6
Age-friendly communitiesWHO Global Age-friendly Cities initiativeSlide7
Age-friendly communities: a new definition“Underpinned by a commitment to respect and social inclusion, an age-friendly community is engaged in a strategic and ongoing process to facilitate active ageing by optimising its physical and social environments and its supporting infrastructure” (Liddle et al., 2013: 6)Age-friendly communities as ‘inclusive’ communities:
As locations where there is a good ‘fit’ between people and placeSlide8
New domains of age-friendlinessWHO dimensions of age-friendlinessStrategic improvement process
Physical environment
Outdoor spaces and buildings
Housing
Social environment
Social participation
Civic participation and employment
Supportive infrastructure
Transportation
Community, support and (health) services
Respect and social inclusion
Respect and inclusion
Communication and information
Applying the new definitionSlide9
Age-friendly communities: opportunitiesChanging the language of ageing: from ‘burden’ to ‘opportunity’ and ‘contribution’Making ageing everybody’s business: public sector, private sector, community and voluntary sector, citizens, communities etc.Ensuring that communities become more habitable for people as they agePreventing ‘home’-lessness in later
life: ensuring that communities become more habitable for people as they ageSlide10
Age-friendly communities: challengesEnsuring full involvement of older peopleSecuring commitment to a strategic and ongoing improvement processExtending age-friendliness to different types of place (housing schemes;
care settings; prisons; commercial spaces etc.)Thinking about the age-friendly characteristics that matter
to
different groups of older people
Providing evidence to assess
age-
friendlinessSlide11
Contact detailsthomas.scharf@nuigalway.iewww.icsg.ie