Rother District Council, Rother Voluntary Action and East Sussex County Council are partners in delivering the Healthy Ageing and Innovation in Rural Europe (HAIRE) Project in two sites in Rother. We propose to use HAIRE as a way of catalysing our work on age friendly communities. Our work on the HAIRE project (and our preparation for our AFC work) has involved recruiting and training around 20 volunteers (all aged 50+) in different aspects of ‘healthy ageing’ and how to carry out interviews with older people. So far, these volunteers have undertaken around 80 in-depth conversations with local older people, covering the eight domains of the AFC framework. This is a key part of our baseline research.
We have begun to analyse the conversations with older people to help inform our AFC work programme. We have formed our volunteers into local steering groups to help review the results of the research and to participate in the decision-making process about which priorities to be taken forward.
As we formally launch our AFC work, further research will be undertaken. We have identified several aspects of ageing that can potentially be made more ‘age-friendly’. This includes supporting people through ‘transitions’ in later life identified as being potentially detrimental to ageing well. Examples of such transitions are the experience of moving into a new community; changes (temporary or permanent) to physical health and capabilities; and being bereaved. Further themes include: better supporting people to be physically active; improving communication to people about opportunities to age well; inclusive, interesting, meaningful ways to be active citizens; digital inclusion; alleviating loneliness; developing opportunities to learn new skills.
The above will help form a strong foundation for our AFC work, providing means for local people to be involved alongside other stakeholders in determining and delivering local age-friendly priorities.