In 2013 the Mornington Peninsula Shire adopted a Positive Ageing Strategy with a ‘whole of council’ and ‘whole of community’ approach to ensure people on the Mornington Peninsula are supported to age well and to promote optimal health and wellbeing. This follows earlier work from 2001 when the Shire was one of the first councils in Victoria to develop an ‘Elder Citizens Strategy’ to help plan its service provision for older community members. The 2013 – 2018 Positive Ageing Strategy further develops this early strategy to ensure the provision of infrastructure and age-friendly neighbourhood designs that enhance the physical, social and economic environment of the local community to ensure the needs, aspirations and wellbeing of older community members are considered and met.
The Strategy outlines many actions to enhance opportunities for older people to live and age well as valued contributors to their community and to ensure they build and maintain strong social connections as they age. These actions fall into the eight key areas of the WHO Framework for Age Friendly Communities and Cities.
A strong focus of the strategy is the development of a community based steering committee made up of Shire officers, members from the Shire’s community based Peninsula Advisory Committee for Elders (PACE), and members of local agencies. The steering committee works to ensure the actions of the strategy are considered and implemented across all teams of the Shire. A new seasonal newsletter has been commenced to widely distribute increasing information and opportunities about ageing well and to help increase opportunities for social connectedness. New local Age-friendly Community Awards have been introduced to promote age friendly opportunities and values. An annual Positive Ageing Community Summit has also been introduced to bring together community members, service providers and business with the Shire to reflect on the strategy’s progress and to capture emerging issues and opportunities for partnerships.