The aim of this report is to give an overview of current state of the art in the occurrence and policies regarding affordable age-friendly and eco-friendly solutions in the partner countries. The report consists of the findings from the literature review, the comparative analysis and the reporting of good practices. It aims for the consortium as a whole to gain an understanding of the state of the art and on affordable age and eco-friendly solutions in partner countries and particularly the home and community fields, and to present that knowledge in the form of a written report. The literature review, the analysis of barriers and facilitators, and the survey on existing or even planning good practices in the project countries, will help the partners to build and update a strong knowledge base in these fields. To be closer to the practical issues that define the adaptability of eco and age-friendly solutions in community, the consortium decided to use mostly grey literature and websites for tools and advice, such as governmental pages. Common grey literature publication types include reports (annual, research, technical, project, etc.), working papers, government documents, white papers and evaluations, which will help all partners to reach conclusions around the common field between age and eco-friendly developments. Barriers and facilitators found in each project country will be used for stipulating the right consequence of actions needed, to propose a sound methodology that could – in combination with other actions and stakeholders – promote the implementation of age and eco-friendly principles into the public and private sphere of care for older people. Finally, the selection of good representative practices by each project country can be the basis for a report, and a publication, that depicts the level of maturity and progress of the notions of age-friendliness and eco-friendliness, as well as their impact on the care of older people.
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The sense of safety and security of older people is a widely acknowledged action domain for policy and practice in age-friendly cities. Despite an extensive body of knowledge on the matter, the theory is fragmented, and a classification is lacking. Therefore, this study investigated how older people experience the sense of safety and security in an age-friendly city. A total of four focus group sessions were organised in The Hague comprising 38 older people. Based on the outcomes of the sessions, the sense of safety and security was classified into two main domains: a sense of safety and security impacted by intentional acts and negligence (for instance, burglary and violence), and a sense of safety and security impacted by non-intentional acts (for instance, incidents, making mistakes online). Both domains manifest into three separate contexts, namely the home environment, the outdoor environment and traffic and the digital environment. In the discussions with older people on these derived domains, ideas for potential improvements and priorities were also explored, which included access to information on what older people can do themselves to improve their sense of safety and security, the enforcement of rules, and continuous efforts to develop digital skills to improve safety online. Original article at MDPI; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19073960
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The World Health Organization (WHO) strives to assist and inspire cities to become more ‘age-friendly’ through the Global Age-Friendly Cities Guide. An age-friendly city offers a supportive environment that enables residents to grow older actively within their families, neighbourhoods and civil society, and offers extensive opportunities for their participation in the community. In the attempts to make cities age-friendly, ageism may interact with these developments. The goal of this study was to investigate the extent to which features of age-friendly cities, both facilitators and hindrances, are visible in the city scape of the Dutch municipalities of The Hague and Zoetermeer and whether or not ageism is manifested explicitly or implicitly. A qualitative photoproduction study based on the Checklist of Essential Features of Age-Friendly Cities was conducted in five neighbourhoods. Both municipalities have a large number of visual age-friendly features, which are manifested in five domains of the WHO model, namely Communication and information; Housing; Transportation; Community support and health services; and Outdoor spaces and buildings. Age-stereotypes, both positive and negative, can be observed in the domain of Communication and information, especially in the depiction of third agers as winners. At the same time, older people and age-friendly features are very visible in the cityscapes of both municipalities, and this is a positive expression of the changing demographics. Original article at Sage: https://doi.org/10.1177/1420326X19857216
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