Information Provision for an Age-Friendly Community

Abstract

A community designed to ensure people age well must provide appropriate information in order to ensure seniors stay healthy and secure and are able to participate fully in their community. The aim of this research is to understand issues impacting on older people's capacity to access relevant information. This paper reports on early phases of action research designed to build ageing well initiatives at the local level in two cities in the south-east Queensland region of Australia. In both places, a range of stakeholders from seniors' groups, service providers and different levels of government formed working action groups to explore criteria for improved systems of information dissemination to seniors. Many seniors report that they are not well-informed and, presumably as a result, not well connected with their community. Our research identifies both a range of barriers for seniors to accessing information and also their preferences regarding information provision. Local solutions proposed to address these barriers and preferences are outlined. It is proposed that applying the principles of information provision Ageing Int (2009) 34:79-98 elaborated in this research would begin to address some perennial challenges for older people and enhance their social inclusion.

Characteristics of Age-Friendly Bus Information

“…The participants rarely commented on these aspects and focused more on aspects not mentioned in previous literature, namely the sources and qualities of bus information. The themes fit in well with the considerations suggested (Everingham et al 2009) for the general provision of information in age-friendly communities. The positive experiences associated with telephone information and bus drivers implicate these media as important aspects of a comprehensive suite of bus information sources, while the negative experiences suggest potential areas for improvement.…”

“…The provision of information involves more than text and readability of written timetables. General guidelines for information provision for older people (not specific to bus information) have been suggested, including providing appropriate, clear and concise information and using a variety of sources for dissemination (Everingham et al 2009). The role that the Internet and telephone services play for some older people is relatively uncharted, although they may be increasingly applicable with the growth of smart phones.…”

Exploration of information needs and development of resources to inform and support those at risk of falling

“…Lack of access to information regarding AT is a well-documented problem, particularly for those who would benefit from it most, namely older and disabled people [4][5][6]. In 2013, Robinson et al [2] explored current practice and the state of AT information provision for the 'oldest old' (those aged 85 and above).…”

“…Although the number of older people accessing the internet is increasing [8], currently the internet is not the dominant source of information for this age cohort. Indeed, the number of people accessing the internet decreases with increasing age and thus increasing need for AT and associated information [6,9].…”

“…It has been argued that once an information need has been identified, older and disabled people need to be involved with exploring and proposing solutions to the information needs [6]. Therefore, the findings from both the focus group and the user interviews were used to identify opportunities to improve access to and provision of information surrounding falls and AT that can be used to help support those at risk of falling.…”