“There are some real challenges ahead.” [James McInnes, Devon County Council]
“[There are] opportunities to widen participation across generations in addressing issues associated with an ageing community…” [Philip Long, VGS]
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We know that Sidmouth is singled out as one of the towns facing the biggest increase in the elderly – and that means doing what we can to prepare for that, including the recent launching of ‘Dementia-friendly Sidmouth’.
In his latest piece for the Herald James McInnes, leader of the county council, looks at the importance of ageing well in Devon – where he considers local health and care services and the importance of keeping fit, alert and healthy. He also looks at working with others on issues such as dementia:
We’re also going to develop a clear, agreed strategy to tackle dementia to build on the pioneering work we’ve already done with experts at Plymouth University and we’re going to explore the adoption of Devon as a World Health Organisation Age-Friendly community.
But ‘age’ also includes those at the other end of the spectrum:
These are just some of the actions we need to take as our younger people increasingly leave the county to find work and “affordable” housing and the birth rate continues to fall. So the ratio of younger people to older people will reduce which will inevitably have an impact on our frontline workforce. Currently across Devon, there are just over two working-age people to one older person: by 2043, we expect this to reduce to 1.7 working-age people. So there are some real challenges ahead.
In other words, we need to be looking after both our younger and older members of the community – from replacing Manstone Youth Centre to ensuring that, in a digital and cashless society, we have a banking hub to cater for all.
Very similar points were made by Dr Philip Long of the VGS earlier in the year, when he asked if Sidmouth is an ‘age friendly’ community:
It may be that communities in Sidmouth may benefit from ‘age friendly’ recognition in ways claimed by the Centre for Ageing Better which include opportunities to widen participation across generations in addressing issues associated with an ageing community…
There is also a recently launched Centre for Coastal Communities at the University of Plymouth whose work is led by researchers on the ‘visitor economy’ and public health. The Co-Director of the Centre, Professor Sheela Agarwal has indicated that she and/or colleagues would be pleased to visit Sidmouth to discuss how stakeholders in the town may participate in their research programme.
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