Abstract
A community designed to ensure people age well must provide appropriate information in order to ensure seniors stay healthy and secure and are able to participate fully in their community. The aim of this research is to understand issues impacting on older people’s capacity to access relevant information. This paper reports on early phases of action research designed to build ageing well initiatives at the local level in two cities in the south-east Queensland region of Australia. In both places, a range of stakeholders from seniors’ groups, service providers and different levels of government formed working action groups to explore criteria for improved systems of information dissemination to seniors. Many seniors report that they are not well-informed and, presumably as a result, not well connected with their community. Our research identifies both a range of barriers for seniors to accessing information and also their preferences regarding information provision. Local solutions proposed to address these barriers and preferences are outlined. It is proposed that applying the principles of information provision elaborated in this research would begin to address some perennial challenges for older people and enhance their social inclusion.
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Notes
The project is known as the Collaborative Approach to Ageing well in the community Model (or CAAM) study.
References to individual participants use pseudonyms to ensure confidentiality
References
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Acknowledgements
This research was funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant held by the University of Queensland, Australia, and conducted with the help of our Linkage partners, Gold Coast City Council, Ipswich City Council, and the Queensland Department of Communities. The authors have no potential conflicts of interest.
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This project was approved by the Behavioural and Social Sciences Ethics Review Committee of the University of Queensland. Clearance number 2006000787. All participants gave informed consent.
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Everingham, JA., Petriwskyj, A., Warburton, J. et al. Information Provision for an Age-Friendly Community. Ageing Int. 34, 79–98 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12126-009-9036-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12126-009-9036-5