Homes for healthy ageing challenges, opportunities and the way forward
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New report charts way forward for healthy ageing
As we age, we are more likely to be faced with age-related conditions such as frailty, dementia or functional loss. Ageing healthily is about prolonging wellbeing.
We’re looking to raise awareness about both the challenges and the opportunities, and encourage all interested parties – from the NHS to housebuilders, to social landlords and most important the elderly themselves – to come together to scale up innovative solutions.
‘Homes For Healthy Ageing: Challenges, Opportunities And The Way Forward’ has been authored and produced by our Housing Innovation Programme team. It is the result of 12 months of engagement and investigation across the sector. The report brings together contributions from many industry thought leaders and collaborators as we crystallise our understanding of how we are best placed to support the sector.
This new report recognises the multi-faceted nature of both ageing and housing and how both are interconnected. It is this complexity which underpins the challenges we face in creating a society where we are all able to age gracefully and independently – and speaks to the need for bringing together stakeholders from across the ecosystem to create a joined-up approach to tackling them.
As a first step towards solutions, ‘Home For Healthy Ageing’ identifies areas where new approaches to housing and homes can be harnessed to improve the lives of older members of society, and the steps that need to be taken in order to unlock their potential.
Homes for healthy ageing key challenges as themes
In the report, the key challenges facing the industry in creating homes that support healthy ageing have been distilled into five themes. These are:
Health and care – how can this be best integrated with later-life housing?
Accessibility and community – what does best practice look like?
Adapting home – what is holding back a faster rollout of enabling adaptations?
Moving home – what are the drivers and drags for the elderly?
Affordability – the challenge of the ‘missing middle’ of affordable properties.
The report also explores the potential of later-life housing, the benefits of bringing change and related policies and funding, as well as highlighting those innovations that have the potential to address the outlined challenges.
This piece of work is the jumping-off point from which we hope the industry works towards a shared vision and roadmap to deliver later-life housing for the betterment of society and our ageing population. This is a significant goal for many reasons, not least because it has been identified as one of the four Grand Challenges of our time as laid out in the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy.
Talking about the report, Annalise Johns, CPC Housing Lead said: “The UK Government has set the Grand Challenge of achieving five extra years of healthy older age by 2035. The Connected Places Catapult housing programme is ideally placed to convene and scale the necessary innovations to support people in their homes which we believe is at the heart of the longevity economy.
“As we age, we are more likely to be faced with multimorbidity – defined as two or more chronic conditions and, more critically, from an age-related condition such as frailty, dementia or functional loss. Ageing healthily is about prolonging wellbeing. With this report and work that follows it, we’re looking to raise awareness about both the challenges and the opportunities in this space, and encourage all interested parties – from the NHS to housebuilders, to social landlords and most important the elderly themselves – to come together to scale up innovative solutions.”
You can read the ‘Homes For Healthy Ageing: Challenges, Opportunities And The Way Forward’ report by clicking below.
