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Age Friendly Communities Forum – 24 November 2015

Age Friendly Communities Forum – 24 November 2015

Status: Ongoing

Burnie Australia
Print this page City population: 1990023% over 60Practice started in 2015

Summary

In partnership with the Council on the Ageing (COTA) a forum was held to understand what it means to live in an Age-friendly community. The priorities raised include:

  • Maps to bathroom facilitates as well as increasing the overall facilities available,
  • Increasing frequency and access to transportation
  • Creating a retirement village
  • Increasing overall accessibility of the environment (seating, handrails, footpaths/walking paths etc..)
  • Availability of accessible low income housing
  • Lack of readily available and easily accessible information for older people.

In response to some of the issues arising from this consultation “The Seniors Directory booklet” was created which provides information to older adults including available services, transport schedules, bathroom maps and recreational activities.

Website: https://www.burnie.net/Community/Seniors

Key facts

Main target group: Older people in general

Sector(s): Information and communication

Desired outcome for older people:
Meet their basic needs

Other issues the Age-friendly practice aims to address:
  • Ageism
  • Accessibility
  • Ageing in place
  • Disasters and emergencies
  • Healthy behaviours (e.g. physical activity)
  • Intergenerational activities
  • Inequities
  • Inclusion
  • Participation

Contact details

Name: Allison Daley

Email address: adaley@burnie.net

Age-friendly practice in detail (click to expand):

Engaging the wider community

Project lead: Other

Older people’s involvement: Older people were not directly involved

Details on older people’s involvement: The older people’s role in this age-friendly practice was identifying that the main issue for them was a lack of information available for a number of topics, as a majority of seniors do not access the internet. From this feedback, a Directory was developed containing information about local service providers, cultural experiences, transport, ageing in place, health and wellbeing to name a few.

Moving forward

Has the impact of this age-friendly practice been analysed: No

Do you plan to evaluate your age-friendly practice? No

Feedback:
There hasn’t been a lot of direct feedback, comments have been received about the convenience of having information available in hard copy and for those who are computer savvy are downloading copies from Council’s website. The Seniors Directory booklet is available for collection at Burnie Council – of which there is a constant demand.

Looking back

Reflections:
The development of the Seniors Directory took some time, collating copious amounts of information and then displaying under specific headings to make topics easier to find.

Challenges:
The challenges – there is a lot of information out there and some services vary depending on individual needs and circumstances. I decided to simplify the information by providing brief descriptions and contact information so oler adults could then follow up. Another challenge is keeping the Directory current, I review the document every six months and after Federal elections.