Eindhoven wants its residents to participate in society healthy and active for as long as possible. The current policy (ActionPlan “Stay at homelonger“) is aimed at: 1) Housing and Living Environment: affordable and suitable living space, flow on the housing market and the living environment. 2) Prevention and (physical and mental) health: support in taking one’s own responsibility, self-reliance and that of the environment. 3) Participating in society: a strong social basis with an accessible offering (basic daytime activities, informal care support), more specific support (guidance, tailor-made daytime activities) and facilities (mobility aids, transport facilities). 4) Safety: tackling elder abuse with the motto ‘prevention is better than cure’.

Following our vision “from caring for to making sure that”, in the future Eindhoven will focus on developing a healthy lifestyle and a safe, healthy living environment for our ageing population. At the same time, we want to promote social connectedness through meetings and the opportunity to participate in activities. We want to offer people the opportunity to learn lifelong, develop new skills and share their own experiences and knowledge. We want to focus on what older people want and can do themselves (or with the help of their social network), so that the quality of their life is guaranteed.

Our aim for the coming years (Elderly Policy “Vital Elderly People in (2)040”) is to focus on reaching the ageing population of the future and creating awareness among this group. Based on the need and reciprocity of this group we will, step by step, develop a so called “learning to get older” programme. Additionally we will focus on the group of support staff and question informal caregivers, identifying their needs and finding solutions for those who contribute to ensure that the vulnerable ageing population can live in their familiar environment for as long as possible.