Thomas Scharf Director, Irish Centre for Social Gerontology, NUI Galway
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Thomas Scharf 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
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Inclusive communities: opportunities and challenges in older age. Thomas Scharf Director, Irish Centre for Social Gerontology, NUI Galway Respond! Housing Association National Conference Dublin, 23 October 2013. Irish Centre for Social Gerontology. Research on ageing and the life course - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Transcript of Thomas Scharf Director, Irish Centre for Social Gerontology, NUI Galway
Thomas ScharfDirector, Irish Centre for Social Gerontology, NUI Galway
Respond! Housing Association National ConferenceDublin, 23 October 2013
Inclusive communities: opportunities and challenges in older age
Irish Centre for Social Gerontology
• Research on ageing and the life course• Informing policy and practice• Education and training
• Places where people age– Different types of community– Different types of housing– Institutional and non-
institutional settings– Different types of people
• What makes places good places to age in?
Ageing and place: a major focus
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)
• ‘Home’ seems to matter more as people age
• But feeling at ‘home’ can be challenged in hostile communities
Inclusive communities reach beyond ‘home’
Age-friendly communities• WHO Global Age-friendly Cities initiative
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
place
New domains of age-friendliness WHO dimensions of age-friendliness
Strategic improvement processPhysical 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 definition
Age-friendly communities: opportunities• Changing 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 age• Preventing ‘home’-lessness in later life: ensuring that communities
become more habitable for people as they age
Age-friendly communities: challenges• Ensuring full involvement of older people• Securing commitment to a strategic and ongoing improvement
process• Extending 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-friendliness
Contact details
www.icsg.ie
