In June, St John’s Foundation’s Lynn Toman, Head of the Good Living Service, and Age UK’s Bath and North East Somerset CEO, Simon Allen, teamed up to deliver a seminar at The Business Exchange South West Charity Expo about building an age-friendly community through the Ageing Well Network.

The Ageing Well Network consists of a number of charities, businesses, public sector organisations and community groups across the region and aims, through a two-year programme, to make Bath and North East Somerset a place where people aged over 55 can continue to thrive and live happy, independent lives.

Here we share the crux of our seminar and discuss the power of collaboration, why it’s important to create age-friendly communities, and what still needs to be done to ensure everyone in the region can be involved and prosperous in our community as we age.

What is an age-friendly community?

An age-friendly community is a place, described by the World Health Organisation (WHO), where people are able to age well and continue to grow personally, have access to and are included in the community, and continue to lead healthy and independent lives. As people age, they face risks of loneliness, health and financial difficulties, which can limit their ability to participate fully in society. This can be prevented by making the community age-friendly.

WHO’s programme for building an age-friendly community is formulated on eight pillars. These centre around:

• The importance of having access to outdoor spaces.
• People feeling valued in their community and having the opportunity to connect with others.
• Having an accessible and affordable transport system, including enough accessible parking spaces
• Ensuring older adults’ homes are safe, affordable and close to necessary amenities.
• Access to activities and social groups to prevent isolation.
• Having sufficient opportunities to gain employment or secure a voluntary role if desired.
• Making sure people can access health and social care services and making systems age friendly.
• The importance of updating older adults on community events and activities through forums.

These eight pillars cover nearly every aspect of a person’s quality of life and are areas everyone should focus on to keep their community engaged and supportive. For older adults, ensuring these needs are met means they can continue to have the same quality of life and remain engaged and active in their community.

Ageing Well in BaNES

In order to make BaNES an age-friendly community where older adults can thrive, St John’s Foundation and Age UK are jointly funding a two-year Ageing Well Programme and developing a scheme, alongside the other members of the Ageing Well Network, to improve older adults’ access to community, support, and expression within our region.

The Network is undertaking extensive research to understand the specific issues that people in our community are facing so that they can respond to present needs and identify potential opportunities in the future.

Throughout the Programme, the Network will measure the impact that each new initiative has on the wellbeing of people in BaNES. The team will then be able to improve and adjust as necessary to ensure their work is truly addressing the issues that require improvement. A forum is also being established so that the voices of the people the Programme aims to support can have a say in its direction and implementation.

One of the areas being tackled at the moment focuses on changing connotations about older people through imagery. For example, instead of using images of older hands, the Network is advocating for inclusive imagery that presents this diverse age category for who they truly are. Another priority is transport, particularly for rural communities, to ensure people can easily and affordably access the activities and amenities they need.

Discussion with attendees at the South West Charity Expo seminar broached issues we might face in the future, including the rising pension age, which could cause financial hardship if a person’s health begins to decline or they have multiple dependents, and the importance of discussing end of life care to ensure our wants and needs are met.

Next steps for Ageing Well in BaNES

We are all part of the wonderful and diverse BaNES community, and we are working to make sure that we can all still feel a part of it as we grow older. The Ageing Well Programme will address many of the pressing issues within the region and we hope, together, to make BaNES a completely age-friendly community.

This year, we’ll be launching the Bath and North East Somerset’s Older People’s Forum to give older adults a collective voice and an opportunity to hear about community projects. Once it is up and running, we invite you to join us! We also strongly encourage everyone over the age of 55 to complete our Ageing Well Survey, and if you have a question, comment or idea for the Ageing Well Network, you can get in touch at 01225 466 135 or email ageingwell@ageukbanes.co.uk.