How can we enable great living in late adulthood?

Pam and Eddie

This project is all about enabling great living for people in late adulthood, particularly those who find themselves in caring roles and relationships.This project brings together TACSI; South Australia’s Office of Ageing; the City of Salisbury; the City of Unley; ACH Group, and Helping Hand Aged Care.

Read our latest report: "Love-ins, lobster, and racing cars: Great living in late adulthood".
Find out more at our next events: 2nd May 2012 or 10th May 2012

The Challenge

More and more Australians are taking on caring roles. 46% of people in need of help with day-to-day activities rely solely on family and friends to get by, whilst 48% depend on a mix of family, friends, and formal services. Yet caring carries costs. Carers are more likely to experience lower levels of wellbeing and increased levels of chronic disease than non-carers.

So how do we enable people in caring roles and relationships to live great lives?

To answer that question, we've been spending time with people in caring roles and relationships. We've hung out in people's living rooms, kitchens, and bedrooms. We've accompanied people to the shops, the doctors, friends' houses, country clubs, dancing halls, and even on holiday. We've experienced day-to-day living, and we've seen what people define as great living. And through all of that, we've identified 7 opportunities for shifting behaviours to enable more people in caring roles and relationships to lead great lives.

Latest Report

"Love-ins, lobster and racing cars: Great living in late adulthood" tells the stories of the people we've met. Some of the people we've met are leading their versions of great lives. Most are not. Why? Well, we think it has a lot to do with people's mindsets, the quality of their relationships, and the vibrancy of their networks. We also think there's lots we could do to shape mindsets, re(set) and repair relationships, and build networks. Download the report here.

The Event

Over the last 6 months we've spent time in Salisbury and Unley in the homes and lives of people in caring roles and relationships. From lobster to love-ins and racing cars to watching wrestling, we've explored what great living looks like in late adulthood and the challenges and stress that get in the way.

Now we're developing 5 early ideas that we hope to bring into the real world. During this workshop, we'll update you on the ideas so far and ask you for your input. We're interested in hearing how you think we might be able to work together and where we should head from here. Our next stage involves getting out into the community and trying some of these ideas out. We'll need your help if these ideas are going to be a success.

We invite you to one of our two workshops

Wednesday, May 2nd
Enfield Community Centre
9:30am - 11:30am
RSVP Here

Thursday, May 10th
Fullarton Park Centre
2pm - 4pm
RSVP Here

We'll explore our ideas relating to

Shaping minds - A different way to connect people with a range of ways to open stuck mindsets.
Restarting networks - A new way for people to eat with others and build relationships rather than alone.
Activating Family and Friends - A framework to help families and friends play a part in the lives of older people.
Diversifying Help - Developing local know-how and passion into helpful mini businesses. It’s help that’s about getting stuff done, enjoying connecting and learning.
Starting Relationships - Creating friendly neighbourhoods that provide new ways for older people to do the things they love and get the help they need.

Learn more about TACSI and our project at http://tacsi.org.au/caring.

Questions? Contact Jenna Romaine at 0412 013 846 or jenna.romaine@tacsi.org.au.

What's next?

In the next month, we'll head back out to people's kitchens and living rooms to build on the 7 opportunity areas. We'll take the early ideas in the report and work with people to move them from concepts to concrete solutions. This is what we call co-design. From there, we'll move into prototyping the most promising solutions. All along the way, we'll be looking for partners and investors to help us make promising solutions real and enable more great living.