“If you design for older people, you design for all of us.”
That’s the view of Catherine Bowes Kelly, local Limerick Age Friendly programme manager on the Limerick Older People’s Council, who are currently drawing up the next Age Friendly Plan for Limerick.
The Limerick council operates across eight themes under the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) programme.
But the council’s work is far from being all about dipped footpaths. “It’s not only about infrastructure – it’s about the whole person as they age – and we all age,” Catherine told the Limerick Post.
The number of people over the age of 65 in Ireland has increased by 35 per cent since 2013, according to the national census. The average age expectancy for women is now 84 and 81 for men.
“That’s a sizeable increase and it’s important we factor that into our planning,” said Catherine.
One of the projects the council has been working on is finding out about the concerns and needs of people over the age of 55.
“We ran focus groups, we went into nursing homes, we had online surveys and there was a very big response. We spoke to 660 people who raised issues and talked about their circumstances.”
The survey showed that, for the majority of people, being able to remain in their own homes is very important, with 85 per cent saying they are happy and feel safe there and would like to see more initiatives around supports to stay at home rather than going into residential care.
Among other issues that older people would like to see tackled are having more green spaces that are accessible and better opportunities for people to walk safely in rural areas.
“Housing is certainly an issue. It’s something we are working with the Council’s housing department on.
“A lot of people are happy to move from larger homes that become expensive to heat and maintain after their families have left to ‘right size’ homes.
“Others want to stay in a community of people but need homes that meet their needs. The Council’s recent development at Mungret Gate Village is a good example of this.
“We would like to see more council housing designed with those people in mind. Ideally in the future, homes will be designed to cater for people as they age rather than having to retrofit, which is much more expensive.”
This year’s national Older Person’s Convention had the theme ‘Failte Ar Ais’ with good reason.
“There is still a cohort of people who are terrified post-Covid of getting out there again and getting back to being involved and socialising. We really want to say to them, it is safe,” said Catherine.
Another initiative the Older People’s Council want to pursue is to get Limerick businesses to declare themselves age-friendly and come up with three initiatives each to make their premises, goods, or services are more inviting and accessible to older people.
The council works at different levels and anyone can nominate themselves to join the Older Persons Executive when elections come up in November. Information is available by contacting [email protected] or calling 061 557 525.
“Our end goal is to have an active and age-friendly community. If we design and plan for that, then we design and plan for everyone,” said Catherine.
