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The Healthy Ageing Programme ran from 2004 to 2009 during Phase IV of the Healthy Cities network.
Belfast Healthy Cities was instrumental in setting up the Strategic Healthy Ageing Partnership for Belfast. This work has now been handed over to Belfast City Council to lead. A Healthy Ageing Coordinator jointly funded by Belfast City Council and Belfast Local Commissioning Group works to this group. The coordinator will take responsibility for updating Seniors Info resource which was developed by Belfast Healthy Cities. The on-line Seniors Info resource is available at www.belfastcity.gov.uk/seniorsinfo
The overall goal of our healthy ageing programme is to generate strong local political commitment and to introduce policies and planning processes that will ensure a holistic and well-balanced approach to the health development and care needs of older people.
The four objectives for our programme are defined by WHO and are to:
- raise awareness and create a common understanding of the concept of healthy ageing, raising awareness and visibility of age issues within cities and generating debate in relation to policies and plans for improved health
- actively engage and involve older people in influencing, advising and monitoring city sector policies, initiatives and service provision
- actively engage and involve older people in influencing, advising and monitoring city sector policies, initiatives and service provision
- create health enhancing living environments that support healthy ageing outcomes by being well-designed, accessible and safe, taking into account the functional capacity of ageing and disadvantaged groups
What is Healthy Ageing?
Healthy ageing is a concept promoted by WHO, that considers the ability of people of all ages to live a healthy, safe and socially inclusive lifestyle. It recognizes the factors beyond health and social care that have a major effect on the health and well being, and the contribution that must be made by all sectors with an influence on the determinants of health. It also embraces a life course approach to health that recognizes the impact that early life experiences have on the way in which population groups’ age.
Healthy ageing shifts strategic thinking away from a needs-based approach – the traditional approach used to deliver services to passive recipients – to a rights-based approach that recognizes the rights of people to equality of opportunity and treatment, particularly as they age. It fosters a positive attitude throughout life to growing old and seeks to break down stereotypes and change attitudes to ageing, promoting understanding between the generations.
 Our Healthy Ageing programme
Our intensive programme on healthy ageing in 2005 and 2006 resulted in a unique joint event with the Eastern Health & Social Services Board in May 2006, with the launch of a number of reports on older people by Belfast Healthy Cities and the launch of the Eastern Health and Social Services Board’s (EHSSB) Older People’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy. The processes by both organisations over this period ran parallel to ensure maximum synergy and concrete outcomes for action on older people. Healthy Ageing:InterAction
Our Healthy Ageing:InterAction Plan is an intersectoral action plan focusing on the social determinants of health for the Eastern Health and Social Services Board area. It is intended to improve services for older people as well as co-ordination of existing services. The action plan will continue as a key element of our programme until 2009. The aim of the plan is to promote and improve the health and wellbeing of older people through integrated planning and to encourage organisations to tailor services which specifically meet the needs of older people.
The plan focuses on action by sectors outside of the health and social care as well as health and social services organisations. It builds on needs identified in consultations with older people and older people’s organisations. These highlighted six individual and one cross cutting theme as priorities:
- Transport
- Community Safety
- Home Safety
- Housing
- Poverty/Fuel Poverty
- Health Promotion
- Community support networks as a cross cutting theme
Under each theme, intersectoral working groups developed an action plan which focuses on new action and improving co-ordination of existing initiatives for older people in the EHSSB area.
Progress
A Mid Way review was published in December 2007. The Review outlines the current position on each agreed action by autumn 2007 and shows that progress has been made in the majority of areas. It also states that greater emphasis has been placed on older people's issues throughout the EHSSB area, but that work must be further strengthened. Belfast Healthy Cities has taken the lead for a number of actions and also facilitates the ongoing work of the Transport Forum, which leads action on transport. Recently, the remit of the Forum was extended to promote older people's transport needs and issues more broadly.
Actions completed by Belfast Healthy Cities include a review of current services for older drivers across the UK, Supporting Safety and Independence, and a literature review of the health impacts of fear of crime on older people. Both reports are being circulated widely to relevant audiences, including relevant Departments and NIO branches. In Belfast, a Healthy Ageing Intersectoral Strategic Group has been established, consisting of senior staff in public and age sector organisations, to monitor the delivery of actions in the Healthy Ageing:InterAction Plan and agree areas where joined up programmes can be developed. The group reports to an all party political reference group for older people within Belfast City Council.
Raising Awareness
Through our healthy ageing process we have had a significant impact on raising awareness amongst public sector organisations and government departments of the need to specifically include older peoples’ issues in policies and actions. This has resulted in a number of organisations in the city taking concrete steps to ensure visibility and action for older people
As part of raising awareness within public sector organisations and to support the action planning process, a mapping exercise was carried out with key organisations in the area in spring 2005. The purpose of the exercise was to establish what initiatives and services organisations currently aim at older people, and what the gaps are. The exercise showed that there was a wide range of initiatives in many organisations, but that some considered older people as part of wider programmes. It also indicated that provision was more limited in Ards and parts of rural Lisburn and Down than in other areas.
Older People: Health, social and living conditions
We have made a major contribution to understanding the social, health and living conditions of older people through the publication of two reports. The reports provide an overview of available statistics and other qualitative information on older people. One report has been produced for the EHSSB area which includes six Districts Council areas, while a specific report on Belfast also has been produced using the same information.
It is the first time that information on older people has been collated for the entire EHSSB area or the City of Belfast. The key aim of both reports is to raise the profile of older people’s needs, act as a support in planning and also to highlight gaps in existing information. Information is presented at the most local level available, including electoral ward level where possible. The reports will also contribute to a WHO European Healthy Cities Network analysis of older people in cities across Europe.
The reports provide information from a wide range of sources on the topics of
- Demography
- Health, mortality and lifestyle
- Health services and access to services
- Housing
- Income and social position
- Employment and occupation
- Transport
- Crime and community safety
- Leisure and recreation
- Education and lifelong learning
- Access, participation and support
The report concludes that a wealth of information on older people is available, but that there are gaps. Identified gaps include:
- There is currently no systematically collected information on the prevalence of certain conditions among older people, such as diabetes, dementia, heart conditions and mental health problems
- There is also no information on drug use, including use of tranquillisers, or how well older people manage medication
- There is little systematically collected information on older people’s views and experiences
Our main conclusion is that organisations appear to collect information which is easily available or required for financial monitoring purposes, while less consideration is given to how well information supports policy and service development. Our key recommendation is that to provide services which meet older people’s needs, organisations need to improve information collection systems. In particular, mechanisms need to be created to collate information which is not immediately available.
On 12 December Dame Joan Harbison, OFMDFM Advocate for Older People, launched ‘Seniors Info’ directory on behalf of Belfast Healthy Cities. This cross sectoral directory which was developed in collaboration with older people and Belfast Healthy Cities partners, provides all kinds of useful information specifically tailored towards older people living in Belfast.
‘Seniors Info’ includes information on the following topics: heating your home; preventing crime; safety in the home; income, benefits and money; housing advice; health and wellbeing; support groups; rights and advocacy; learning and leisure; transport and emergency numbers.
More detailed information on the above topics is available on the following website: www.belfastcity.gov.uk/seniorsinfo. As well as being accessible for older people, the website is of benefit to professionals working with older people
Healthy Ageing Resources
This section lists a number of resources relevant to healthy ageing. Please note that the links lead to external websites and that Belfast Healthy Cities is not responsible for content on these sites.
International
Madrid International Plan on Ageing (United Nations, 2002)
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/ageing/
United Nations Principles for Older Persons.
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/iyop/iyoppop
Active Ageing: A Policy Framework (WHO, 2002)
http://www.euro.who.int/ageing
European Union policy
http://www.europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/en/s02311.htm
UK/Republic of Ireland
Opportunity Age: Meeting the Challenges of Ageing in the 21st Century (Department for Work and Pensions, 2005)
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/opportunity_age/
The Strategy for Older People in Wales, Welsh Assembly Government (2003)
http://www.wales.gov.uk/subisocialpolicy/content/older/older-people-final-e.pdf
National Council on Ageing and Older People (RoI)
http://www.ncaop.ie/healthy.html
Northern Ireland
Ageing in an Inclusive Society, Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, 2005)
http://www.ageinginni.gov.uk/
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