How can we enable great living in late adulthood?

Pam and Eddie

This poroject 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".
Come to our event: 8 February 2012, Adelaide.

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

Enabling more people in caring roles & relationships to experience great living is going to take all of us. Friends, family members, professional carers, residential care services, community groups, housing associations, etc. On 8 February, we're inviting anyone with an interest in improving outcomes for older people to come along, learn about what we've been up to, and contribute their ideas and feedback. Click here to register for event.

Liz and Mike

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.