When the department of Health and Aged Care launched their Positive Ageing campaign, they stated “Everyone deserves to live well and maintain their health and independence into the future”. As we age, we move from workforce to retirement, requiring planning for health, care and connection, as well as financial security – planning for positive ageing. With the purpose of staying independent and healthy longer.
The Royal Commission into Aged Care discovered many issue around ageing, as written in the report:
“As we age, we progressively shift our focus from work to other things that give us purpose and joy…yet… as a nation Australia has drifted into an ageist mindset that undervalues older people and limits their possibilities”.
In order for us to make positive changes, we must first consider how we see ageing.
Knowledge exists on the many aspects of healthy ageing, indeed in 2002 the Mc Kinsey Health Institute proposed a framework for healthy ageing (Dewhurst et al, 2022).
Figure 1. Mc Kinsey Health Institute Healthy Ageing Framework (Dewhurst et al, 2022)
This framework presents four components of healthy ageing; Physical, Social, Mental and Spiritual, and suggests six shifts needed for healthy ageing:
- invest in the promotion of healthy aging
- improve measurements of health and get better data
- scale interventions proven to promote healthy aging
- accelerate innovation across the healthy aging ecosystem
- unleash the potential of all industries to enable healthy aging
- empower and motivate older adults to live to their full potential
The Positive Ageing Summit, to be held in Adelaide at the end of May, wants to discuss these matters, and much more! This inaugural conference gathers together industry leaders, pioneers, and emerging innovators, to discuss these factors, and many more, to inspire collaboration, share evidence-based strategies, and empower every participant to achieve better outcomes in aged care.
The symposium highlights patient centred care, and the allied health support that is essential in the service delivery to support reablement, mental health, and nutrition, among others. The program consists of keynote addresses, panel discussions and interactive workshops, allowing industry leaders, clinical teams and researchers to combine their knowledge to discuss innovative ideas for better practice and business, and to share the best practice principles on Reablement, Mental Health and Nutrition.
The presentation line-up is extensive, including speakers from research, government, business innovation, clinical and management backgrounds, providing a wide range of expertise, knowledge, and opinions for a program that covers all aspects of ageing and the support services, from retirement to the end of life.
The symposium’s platinum sponsor Bolton Clarke has been an advocate for Positive Ageing for quite some time. They launched their official Positive Ageing Campaign in July 2024, addressing many issues discovered during the Royal Commission into Aged Care, as well as their own 2023 Ageing Well report that shared insights from a national survey for 2000+ Australian aged 25-75+ years. This report discusses ageing well in Australia, the learnings of the study, as well as future directions for the industry. The key findings focused on the attitudes towards older people, the priorities in ageing, the concept in care as well as finances.
Figure 2. What Australians need to age well, ranked from most to least important. (Bolton Clarke, 2023)
The Survey ranked the requirements for ageing well with the top place going to financial security, followed by activity, relationships, health and independence). The results also found that as we age, these priorities change, with staying active and access to health services becoming an increasingly high priority for older respondents, above financial security.
Indeed, respondents aged 65-74 were most likely to rank staying active and access to health services as their top ageing well priorities, highlighting the importance of allied health and reablement services, some of the priorities of the Positive Ageing Symposium.
In a recent article in the Australian Ageing Agenda, Bolton Clarke’s CEO Stephen Muggleton discussed the future of services to support ageing well. Bolton Clarke is one of the few providers that offer a full continuum of connected care and living options.
As Australia’s ageing population is growing, it is important to respond in an appropriate manner. The increased longevity can mean an increase in chronic diseases and morbidity, as well as a decrease in quality of life. However, as said by Mr Muggleton, “While this may be accepted as a normal trajectory of ageing, it doesn’t have to be.”
The inclusion of allied health services, exercise, reablement and restorative care approaches in the aged care sector is an important part of the full solution – An integrated approach that incorporates welfare, community services, enhancing social participation and affordable and appropriate housing.
“We need to build services that support people to age positively. That starts with breaking down ageist attitudes, which overwhelmingly portray active and engaged older people as an anomaly and ignore what they have to say,” says Mr Muggleton. “Ageing is just another word for living and our services need to reflect that and take a much more integrated, whole of life approach to helping people live and age well.”
Figure 3. The Bolton Clarke Callisto Place Physiotherapy team at the wellness gym.
In my previous blogs I have discussed the steps Bolton Clarke is taking to provide the best health for all. Indeed, in May 2024 Bolton Clarke was the winner of the inaugural Operator of the Year – Active Ageing Award at the Asia Pacific Eldercare Innovation Awards, aligned with the World Ageing Festival held in Singapore. The winning award reflects the organisation’s focus on positive ageing including services that aim to provide every resident and community member the best health and wellness.
The National Seniors Australia blog from some time ago gave a nice summary about Positive Ageing, as discussed in my previous blog.
“Positive ageing is a concept that encourages us to embrace a natural process with enthusiasm and optimism. It’s about nurturing our physical and mental well-being, pursuing our passions, and finding fulfillment.”
HUR Australia is very happy to sponsor the upcoming symposium that is set to change the way we think about ageing. By combining the research evidence, clinical experiences, best practice principles, successful business, management and funding models, we can create models that allow everyone to age positively, and allowing us to keen living the way we wish!
You can find more information and register via this link.
Best wishes,
Dr Tuire Karaharju-Huisman
Physiotherapist, Accredited Exercise Physiologist (ESSAM), PhD (Biomechanics)
Research Lead, Area Account Manager (Vic, Tas, SA, NT)
