Transcript Document

A community based approach to promote
active ageing in Staffordshire
The Active in Age Programme
Lynne Wealleans
Positive Ageing Manager
Beth Johnson Foundation
The Beth Johnson Foundation
The Beth Johnson Foundation
• The purpose of the Beth Johnson Foundation is to stimulate
and facilitate change which enhances the quality of life for
older people and the experience of the ageing process
• We want
 a better quality of life for older people
 older adults to be treated with respect and valued for their
contribution
 policies and services which ensure this happens
• One of our main aims is to encourage older people to exert
more control over their lives and maximise their choices and
opportunities
Positive Ageing Programme
• Positive ageing is complex – for the Foundation it is outcome
focussed:
 recognise ageing as an integral part of the life course
 promote the roles and value of older people to their
communities and wider society
 maximise health and well-being across the life course
 promote independence
 reduce loneliness and isolation and their negative impacts
on health and well-being
 increase participation in activities that improve quality of
life
Health Improvement Project
• The aim of the Health Improvement Project is to improve the
health and wellbeing of people aged 50+ living in Stoke on
Trent and North Staffordshire. It does this through the
development and delivery of health promotion and
prevention activities based on consultation with older people
and other key stakeholders
• One of the vehicles for delivering the Health Improvement
Project is the Active in Age programme, training older people
as volunteer peer health mentors
Active in Age
• Consultation with older people showed a reluctance to
access the more traditional physical activity provision e.g.
gyms
• To design a more accessible and attractive alternative
• To develop a community based programme which would be
more accessible to people where they lived
• Train peer mentors to deliver the groups to avoid the
participant/professional barrier and to ensure sustainability –
a cascade approach
• Peer mentors are the volunteers of the groups where activity
is delivered rather than Foundation volunteers
Main features
• Recruitment and training of volunteer peer mentors – over
350 trained in the last ten years, around 250 currently active
in 86 groups
• Development of Open College Network accredited courses
for volunteers – Active in Age and Training the Trainer
• Network support meetings include information on up to date
key health messages for dissemination back through the
groups
• Partnership working
• Falls prevention
Key findings
• Peer health mentors encourage participants to take a more
proactive approach towards their own health
• People attend the groups long-term
• The groups are multi-functional – providing a social network,
reducing loneliness and isolation (annual impact
assessments)
• Improved physical and mental health and mobility
“I used to walk with two sticks, now it’s one and my aim is none”
• Reaching target group – people at most disadvantage or risk
of social exclusion e.g. Douglas MacMillan Hospice
Areas for development
• Although targeted at the 50+ age groups the majority of
participants are aged 65 and over
• There is low attendance by older men at the groups, although
those that do attend have a positive experience
• The project is open to all and some groups attract people
from diverse communities but not in proportional numbers –
targeted work has been recommended to Commissioners. A
group meeting in a Sikh temple has been very successful
Lynne Wealleans
Positive Ageing Manager
Beth Johnson Foundation
[email protected]
www.bjf.org.uk