My vision of a Decade of Healthy Ageing: Jim, York

I chair the Age-Friendly York Citizen Group which represents the views of older people in York. The group monitors progress and explores solutions to deliver against the citizen-led Age-Friendly York action plan.

In October 2020, I was part of a national conference run by the Centre for Ageing Better along with other older representatives from the UK Network of Age-friendly Communities, to share what we thought would be the signs that would show we have succeeded in having a Decade of Healthy Ageing – interesting since some of us probably won’t be there to see the end of the decade! As a part of the Age-friendly profile, we have been working with City of York Council on the transportation domain, which we widened, naming it Getting Out and About.

We want to encourage people to be active and to get out to places, to meet friends and discover new experiences. The pandemic has not helped but nevertheless, the discussions and thinking that have gone into the topics will stand us well in the future.

York is a great city to live in and for people to visit. However, many often ask about public toilets and somewhere to sit down for a short rest. In addition, the condition of the footpaths is critical as they may cause falls and serious injuries, especially for older people.

A lot of practical ideas have been generated on how to make an impact and improve the facilities. Support from local businesses to allow people access to seats and toilet use is a simple step forward – not everybody can afford to go into an expensive coffee shop in order to use the toilet.

Another initiative is the introduction of the ‘Chatty Bench’. These are now in cities all over the world and encourage people to sit and chat with a total stranger without feeling embarrassed or uncertain. In York, during the pandemic this has been a challenge to ensure safe spaces between chatters but some people have met up and shared experiences in a socially distanced way. This can be a big benefit in combatting loneliness.

Investment in infrastructure is crucial and big improvements have been made to the city centre, with the quality of the pavements and streets greatly improved and better reporting options for broken or loose pavement slabs.

Despite the pandemic, York Citizen meetings via Zoom have allowed people to keep reviewing progress. Simple progress reports have ensured that people know about the actions being taken to improve the infrastructure.

We are broadening our discussions to look at people’s leisure time – a particular challenge during the pandemic. A survey from 2018 showed that approximately half felt they had little social contact and felt isolated. The barriers to getting out and about included transport to community activity and health limitations. During the pandemic, online access became a big issue with cost cited as a barrier to digital inclusion – some older people cannot afford the equipment and connection charges. A community project is working on helping to provide equipment, internet access and support to overcome this digital divide.

There will be more facilities to support people visiting the city centre; there will be openness between citizens and institutions and people will be worrying less about eating or heating.

Friendship and mutual understanding will lead to a happier city.

There is much to do!

Jim Cannon
Chair, York Older Citizens Group which is part of the Age-friendly activity in York.

York is a member of the UK Network of Age-friendly Communities