Voices on well-being
The numbers and proportion of older and very old people will continue to grow significantly. The debate surrounding this tends to frame older people as a problem especially at a time when cuts in public spending are imposing financial constraints on systems of care and adding to the ‘cost burden’ on a decreasing proportion of taxpayers. Shaping our Age challenges these negative perspectives and highlights the opportunity for older people to be supported and enabled to be active contributors to society and to challenge notions of dependency.
This report presents the key findings from phase one of the Shaping our Age research project, in which a diverse range of older people define their well-being, the factors that shape it, the barriers to well-being, the impact of services on well-being and suggested improvements.
Voices on well-being
Voices on well-being summary
Shaping our Age is a three-year, Big Lottery Funded project and unique partnership between WRVS, the Centre for Citizen Participation at Brunel University and the Centre for Social Action at De Montfort University. The project aims to provide new ideas and insights to the emerging issues around ageing by:
- Exploring how older people aged 65 and over understand and define their well-being (Phase one of the research)
- Selecting five WRVS services to participate in action and development projects (Phase two)
- Developing participatory ways through local activities in which older people can help each other to achieve well-being (Phase three)
- Providing the learning that can help to enable and support older people to improve their well-being (Phase four).
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