Health & Wellbeing Age Expo 2023

Status: Completed

Evaluated

County Clare Ireland

Print this page City population: 11881720% over 60Practice started in 2023

Summary

Clare’s Older People’s Council, supported by Clare County Council’s Age Friendly Clare and Healthy Clare programmes, hosted a very successful Health and Wellbeing Age Expo at Treacy’s West County Ennis on 30th June 2023.
Over 500 people turned out to the Age Expo which showcased the supports and services available in County Clare that are of interest and use to older people. The Mid-West Community Healthcare – Integrated Care Programme Older Persons, Active Ennis, Clare Sports Partnership, Clare Libraries, Local Link, Alzheimer’s Society of Ireland and Slainte an Chlair were just some examples of those displaying at the event. Guest speakers discussed the new ‘Healthy Age Friendly Homes’ initiative and ‘Preparing for a Healthy Retirement’. Attendees also had an opportunity to participate in a singing taster session, Active Ageing classes, and attend a cookery demonstration. The Irish Heart Foundation were carrying out free health checks during the event too and Chime provided free hearing tests. The Alzheimer’s Society of Ireland had a community van outside on the day providing advice and support.
The Expo was a platform for Clare’s Older People to engage with organisations delivering health and wellbeing supports and services across the County. Attendees were eager to learn more about what’s available in the county and to try out taster sessions too throughout the day.

Website: https://yoursay.clarecoco.ie/age-health-expo

Key facts

Main target group: Older people in general

Sector(s): Education, Health, Housing, Information and communication, Long-term care, Transportation

Desired outcome for older people:
Learn, grow and make decisions

Other issues the Age-friendly practice aims to address:

Ageing in place
Dementia
Elder abuse
Healthy behaviours (e.g. physical activity)
Participation

Contact details

Name: Shanelle Waring

Email address: agefriendlyclare@clarecoco.ie

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

Engaging the wider community

Project lead: Older People’s Association

Others involved in the project:

Local authorities
Civil Society Organisation
Older People’s Association
Social or health care provider
Volunteers
Research institution

How collaboration worked: The Clare’s Older People’s Council,, supported by Clare County Council’s Age Friendly Clare and Healthy Clare programmes, hosted the event. The event was funded by the Department of Health’s “Healthy Ireland Fund”. The Local Authority/Clare Age Friendly Programme including Rural Development staff supported the Clare Older People’s Council in terms of event management and attendance on the day.

Older people’s involvement: Older people were involved in the age-friendly practice at multiple or all stages

Details on older people’s involvement: The Clare Older People’s Council (OPC) formed a sub committee to organise the event, supported by the Clare Age Friendly Programme and Rural Development staff. The sub committee met on several occasions to organise and agree on the event itself, speakers, taster sessions, exhibitors and were involved in advertising the event. Members of the OPC volunteered on the day for several roles including meet and greet, registration, and event managment.

Moving forward

Has the impact of this age-friendly practice been analysed: Yes

Was the impact positive or negative:
Positive

Please share with us what you found in detail:
The feedback received above showed learnings for future events. Having an evaluation form available on the day was very beneficial. While there were some issues with sound, one older person we met turned it into a positive and stated that it was great to hear chat and banter amongst people, especially those who do not get out too often. We met one lady who was with her mother and she stated that this was her mother’s first event since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Evaluation report: Evaluation-Form-Expo-2023.pdf

Feedback:
We produced an evaluation form for the event which was handed out on the day and was also available on-line. We received some very positive feedback from the attendees, see summary below:- “Informative and Comprehensive”. “Very good and interesting – A superb idea. Hope to see many more organised”. “Stands very well run. Staff very helpful”. “Very good and all of the representatives were very informative and helpful”. “Super – a huge variety of relevant information”. “Excellent 10/10”. “Great – informative and friendly”. “Very impressed – very well organised”. “Enjoyed cooking for 1 and singing in Breakout Room 2”. “Yes – tired the fish cakes and the apple crumble they were very tasty”. “Cooking for 1, Active Age, Blood Pressure Test, Fire Safety were excellent”. “Cookery – Excellent good presentation and info. Singing – Loved it good laugh and exercise”. “Singing was great”. “Learned about free access to classes, cultural events etc.”. “I found out lots of information about services available that I didn’t know about previously, especially from Clare County Council Library & Resource Centre”. “I did not know there was so much help and activities around”. Learnings taken on the day: The noise level in the room was high due to the attendance of such a large group. The speakers were based in the main room (with chairs available in front of them) but there was issues with sound from the background activities. Participants felt that the room was too small for such an event. This was addressed in the evaluation, post event and recommendations were noted.

Expansion plans:
Yes we are now organising the Health & Wellbeing Age Expo 2024 which is taking place on 3rd October 2024 during Positive Ageing Week.

Looking back

Reflections:
We have set up an Older People’s Council sub committee and have held several meetings in the last couple of months. Following the evaluation of last year’s event we have booked the larger function room in the Hotel and speakers will present in a different room. This will enable attendees to move more freely around the stands and having the speakers in a separate room will address the sound issues. What worked very well also was the distribution of flyers for all attendees which outlined the running order on the day and map of exhibitors.

Challenges:
There is a need to have many volunteers on the day. We organised a team from Rural Development and members of the OPC volunteered. Duties included registration, management of stands, I.T. organisation, liaising with Hotel staff, ushering attendees in, management of the Health Checks inside and outside the Hotel. It is important that the team are aware of their roles and responsibilities and we overcame this by meeting at the Hotel the evening before and went through the running event. It is important to have as many volunteers as possible on the day in order for the event to run as smoothly as possible.