There is steady progress with the City of Casey’s commitment to creating a more age-friendly community through its delivery of the Living and Ageing Well Action Plan.
The plan, which was endorsed in 2023 and aims to finish in 2025, was developed with Casey’s 55-plus communities following a series of engagements in order to understand what was needed to live and age well.
Casey’s chair of administrators Noelene Duff PSM said that during the first year of the action plan, “more than 650 people were provided access to allied health interventions and over 400 older residents were supported to access aged care services and connect to activities through the Link Worker program”.
Furthermore, she added that the council has an important role to play in ensuring older residents are given the opportunities and support needed to be able to live positively in the community.
The plan itself takes a broad council and community-wide approach, with teams from across the organisation working to bring the 49 actions in the plan to life.
“More than 3000 residents also participated in our Ageing Positive Festival, as well as the plans for the Ray Bastin Reserve redevelopment, which has incorporated age-friendly principals to make the space more accessible, and will include Casey’s first seniors exercise park,” Ms Duff said.
Some key highlights of the actions delivered from the plan in the last 12 months include the hiring of Living and Ageing Well project officers and launching the Ageing Well Network; which aims to bring professionals together to collaborate and collectively respond to and plan for supporting older communities.
Other achievements include establishing the Community Reference Group to help ensure the voices and needs of people aged 55 and over are represented, as well as facilitating over 100 low and no-cost events as part of the Ageing Positively Festival.
Ms Duff added that in the coming 12 months, the council officers will continue to deliver on the Action Plan with the community, which “will include raising further awareness about combating ageism and elder abuse”.
“[As well as] supporting older residents to prepare and be resilient to the impacts of climate change, improving accessibility of council facilities including the website and encouraging the community to be physically active,” she said.
