Abstract
Age-friendly Communities (AfCS) as defined by the World Health Organization promote a systems wide approach to health and wellbeing and ageing well among older people. Community support and health services are one of the essential features of an AfC according to the WHO. In Scotland the Scottish Older People’s Assembly (SOPA) provides a voice for older people and has been implementing a national project to promote and support the development of AfCs across the country. To date two local authority areas in Scotland are registered as AfCs and the main aim of our project is to bring the benefits of an AfC to other areas in Scotland.
At the heart of our approach is the involvement and participation of older people in shaping the places and the communities they live in. This is being achieved through engaging with statutory and voluntary sector agencies with a focus on older people. At local area level various initiatives have been used to involve older people in the initial stages of developing an AfC and communicating the benefits of it across communities.
The design, implementation and monitoring of the project has been guided by both SOPA’s Board of Trustees and a National Advisory Group representing statutory and voluntary sectors. SOPA (funded by the Tudor Trust) has employed a part-time national Project Co-ordinator to take forward the implementation work:
- Promoting the concept and potential scope of AfCs among national and local stakeholders
- Establishing a Scottish Network Group for local area representatives such as those from local authorities, NHS and voluntary sector to share information and practice on the process of developing an AfC
- Supporting individual local areas to promote AfCs and associated project work
- Engaging with local politicians to further the AfC approach in their areas
- Partnership working with the UK Network of AfCs (Centre for Ageing Better)
- Understanding the AfC approach in the context of both rural and urban environments and what this means for communities
The project is evolving but the initial impacts have included increasing the number of local areas considering the AfC approach from two to eleven and they are all represented on our Scottish Network Group. One area is actively pursuing membership of the UK Network of AfCs and there is a plethora of age-friendly activity emerging as part of the process of developing the project. This includes initiatives that are improving the participation and involvement of older people in shaping their communities.
For the international community the AfC national project in Scotland provides an example of how the voice of older people can be harnessed at various levels to support and promote Age-friendly Communities. Our next steps include ensuring more local areas in Scotland join the UK and global networks of AfCs as well as harnessing wider national recognition and support for the approach given the potential health and wellbeing benefits for older people.