BETTER FOR ALL: AGE-FRIENDLY COMMUNITIES
Saskatchewan has joined numerous other jurisdictions in launching an Age-friendly Community Recognition Program.
The program, a joint initiative by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health and the Saskatchewan Seniors Mechanism (SSM), an umbrella group for seniors’ organizations, began its search for age-friendly communities earlier this year as part of the international program started by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2010. The WHO website states that “age-friendly environments foster healthy and active aging. They enable older people to age safely in a place that is right for them, be free from poverty, continue to develop personally, and to contribute to their communities while retaining autonomy, health and dignity.”
The WHO program, launched in 2010 as a response to the world’s aging population and increased urbanisation, aims to connect cities, communities and organizations worldwide with the common vision of making their community a great place to grow old in. As part of the program, communities become part of a network that currently includes 705 cities and communities in 39 countries, covering over 210 million people worldwide.
While such communities enact programs to offer a better quality of life for older individuals, those efforts result in environments that benefit everyone, says Holly Schick, the executive director of the Saskatchewan Seniors Mechanism. “The ideal agefriendly community, while it starts from the perspective of older adults, it really makes a community better and more inclusive of all people,” she says.
She says that all communities should work towards becoming agefriendly. “Age-friendly communities hope to address all that [senior specific issues like isolation] while at the same time creating communities that are healthy and better places for everybody,” Schick says.
In July of this year, Statistics Canada reported that more than 23 per cent of the national population is aged 60 and older. Here in Saskatchewan, the 2016 census showed an increase of almost 11 per cent in the number of residents age 65 and older.
Age-friendly Communities is a particular program which communities participate in. To be able to apply for recognition as age-friendly, interested communities must join the program through the Saskatchewan Seniors Mechanism. They then need to complete certain goals – establish an Age-friendly Committee, obtain the support of their municipal government, assess the community to determine where age-friendly initiatives are needed and develop, publicize and implement an action plan. Information on the program is available on line at www.agefriendlysk.ca.
Schick says the Saskatchewan communities that will be recognized as age-friendly under the program will be announced later this fall, likely during the Legislative Sitting in November. She says SSM is thankful for the provincial support of the program. “We very much appreciate the Government of Saskatchewan agreeing to do the recognition of communities. That’s an important step for Saskatchewan,” she says.
There are eight areas in which communities can ensure they are age-friendly: buildings environment, transportation, housing, social participation, respect and social inclusion, civic participation and employment, communication, and community support and health services. Schick gives the examples of communities that have implemented a seniors’ walking group, constructed a community garden, plans for visiting older people in their nursing home and an intergenerational pen pal project. “They can be cultural activities. They can be intergenerational. These are all different areas they can be working in,” says Schick.
Schick says that the recognition of age-friendly communities in Saskatchewan does not mean that there is no more work to be done. She anticipates the recognition program will be continued into the future. “Recognition means that they have done things to move along in the agefriendly journey. It’s not an end – it’s an ongoing process, they continue to do things. And, it’s our intention to continue to work with them once they’ve received that recognition and to be able to renew that recognition every two to three years,” she says.
As the WHO says: “An age-friendly world is possible and will be built by all of us – community by community, city by city, and region by region.” And, here in Saskatchewan, too.