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Healthy ageing: the big picture
How can the Government help Australians to age in a healthy manner? Veronica Sheen, national policy officer for the Council on the Ageing, ponders the question.
Sometimes you really have to look at the big picture.
This was the conclusion COTA staff drew as we put together a response to the Federal Government’s recent Discussion Paper on Healthy Ageing.
We’d been asking ourselves questions about which factors help people to age in a healthy way, and which factors act against healthy ageing.
Providing an adequate health service is certainly important. Clearly we must ensure that we can provide suitable health care for everyone, regardless of age or ability to pay.
Then there are those essential programmes which link community support systems with the health system. Things like community care, rehabilitation and convalescent facilities, dental health, allied health services and health promotion.
But, important as these things are, they are only part of the complex web of interrelated factors that contribute to the overall health of our older people. We have to take a broader view.
The ageing of the population will be most successfully managed if the community settings are appropriate. This means governments must give careful thought to community and urban planning, to public transport, to housing and to the provision of social and cultural amenities.
The physical layout of communities and cities is vitally important in promoting healthy ageing. Urban structures need to be developed which maximise the independence and mobility of older people.
Then there’s housing. The broad divide is between people who own a house and those who do not. In old age, people shouldn’t need to worry about having a roof over their heads. They should be able to feel that they can stay in the one place for as long as they choose or until care needs make independent living impractical.
But a population of healthy older people has even more fundamental requirements.
The capacity of Australia to successfully manage an ageing population in a way that is fair, equitable and sustainable will depend to a very large degree on us having a physical environment that allows us to maximise public health. For example, high levels of air pollution create respiratory and other illnesses. Humans don’t thrive in a poor quality environment. It also depends on us creating a sound economy with low levels of unemployment, sustainable growth and low levels of income inequality. And it depends on us achieving a stable and harmonious society characterised by intergenerational respect, racial tolerance, gender equity, and fairness in the distribution of resources.
Yes, when it comes to good health, a narrow focus just won’t do.
