This essay explores the changing nature of the concept of community wellbeing and the richness of the concept for enhancing measurement of societal progress beyond the use of indicators focused more narrowly on economic growth. Beginning with the history of the concept of wellbeing in several disciplines, the authors pursue an integrated and ecological understanding of community wellbeing and present examples of recent developments and applications of community wellbeing indicators in international settings and in Australia.
This paper details the findings of an exploratory study undertaken in 2009 into the older population who live alone with dementia, as part of a wider study into the phenomenon of living alone in older age with a cognitive impairment or early stage dementia. Interviews were undertaken with 19 older people who live alone with cognitive impairment or early stage dementia, and field notes were taken during interview visits. Throughout this paper, older people who live alone with a cognitive impairment or dementia who participated in the study will be referred to by pseudonym. Overall, the findings give insight into the lives of these people and how they remain connected to and supported by others. These findings will contribute to the knowledge of this group, which may be considered in future research and service delivery.
The Age-Friendly Cities and Communities Guide was released by the World Health Organization over a decade ago with the aim of creating environments that support healthy ageing. The comprehensive framework includes the domains of outdoor spaces and buildings, transportation, housing, social participation, respect and inclusion, civic participation and employment, communication and information, and community and health services. A major critique of the age-friendly community movement has argued for a more clearly defined scope of actions, the need to measure or quantify results and increase the connections to policy and funding levers. This paper provides a quantifiable spatial indicators framework to assess local lived environments according to each Age-Friendly Cities and Communities (AFC) domain. The selection of these AFC spatial indicators can be applied within local neighbourhoods, census tracts, suburbs, municipalities, or cities with minimal resource requirements other than applied spatial analysis, which addresses past critiques of the Age-Friendly Community movement. The framework has great potential for applications within local, national, and international policy and planning contexts in the future.
Australia's population is ageing rapidly, and our cities and communities need to be prepared to accommodate the needs of this increasing demographic to facilitate ageing in place. Ageing in place-where older people remain active and engaged members of the community-is influenced by access to services in the community. This paper introduces an indicator of access to services for older people that can be used to plan for age friendly cities. Development of the indicator was informed by qualitative research with older people and key stakeholders. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) were used to create the indicator and map locations of key services in relation to population based ageing demographics in Victoria, Australia. Areas of comparative advantage and disadvantage were identified, with results demonstrating that most regional municipalities had fewer services to access than their metropolitan counterparts. This research provides the first attempt to measure and compare service provision for older people across the state of Victoria.
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