Quality of Life Strategy for Older People and Carers 2006/2016

'Growing older, growing bolder, living well' - these are the aspirations of the council and its health and voluntary sector partners in the Quality of Life Strategy for older people and carers 2006/2016 (pdf).

Some of the strategy’s main objectives are to:

improve physical fitness of older people and carers through moderate regular exercise
promote use of equipment to help people be more independent and active, such as continence care, low vision and hearing services
ensure people’s healthier lives are longer, through preventing disease, and promoting healthy lifestyles
provide social and community activities through a ‘one stop shop’ model to improve the whole life experience

The strategy is the result of consultation and work with older people and carers themselves telling the council and health service, what they needed and what was important to them.

Some of the main issues older people themselves raised were:

a more co-ordinated approach to the provision of transport
more co-ordinated approach among different agencies, not just health and social services, to help people stay healthy
closer working with voluntary sector to develop outreach services, particularly to ethnic minority groups
more information on specific issues, such as nutrition, benefits and preventing falls

The strategy builds on work already achieved by the council and its partners over the last three years, such as the carers centre, new homecare contracts, improved information through the publication of the older people’s directory and the introduction of purchasing of services between the council and the PCT.