March saw the launch of a new mental health campaign aimed at older people. 'Don't brush it under the carpet' was a collaboration between the Ageing Hub, GM Health and Social Care Partnership and GM Older People's Network - a direct output of discussions at the weekly age friendly Greater Manchester wider team meetings. It's a great example of the how the ageing eco-system in our city region bears fruit.

And there's still an opportunity to apply to join the new Greater Manchester Older People's Equality Panel, one of the Mayoral advisory panel. The deadline for applications has been extended to 1 April 2022. 
 
Our partners Ambition for Ageing (at GMCVO) and the Centre for Ageing Better have been busy publishing some great new reports. See below to find out more.
 
As always, thank you for your continued support.
 
Greater Manchester Ageing Hub team

'Don't brush it under the carpet' campaign targets older people's mental health 

Greater Manchester has launched a new campaign to improve mental wellbeing and raise awareness of self-harm in older people.

Recent research shows that older people who self-harm are at 67 times greater risk of suicide than the general older population and almost three times greater than the relative risk of suicide among younger people who self-harm.

The new campaign ‘Don’t Brush It Under the Carpet’, which was launched at the Greater Manchester Ambition for Ageing celebration event on 1 March, aims to reach and support older residents who may be feeling depressed and alone and guide them to the right support for them. The campaign also aims to raise awareness of the issue of self-harm and older people, among carers, family members and health professionals to enable them to support residents who may be struggling.

The campaign, which has been funded by the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership and builds on their existing Shining A Light on Suicide Campaign, has been created by a working group made up of representatives from the Shining a Light on Suicide Campaign, Greater Manchester Older People’s Network, Greater Manchester Ageing Hub, health professionals and a focus group of older residents. This campaign’s concept is themed around common phrases and sayings that residents would be familiar with and relate to including don’t brush it under the carpet and a problem shared is a problem halved.

Polly Kaiser, Consultant Clinical Psychologist Oldham and Clinical Lead Older Peoples' psychological therapies, Pennine Care said: “These shocking statistics debunk any myths that self-harm is an issue only for young people. We know that recovery statistics are positive for older people. Poor mental wellbeing is not an inevitable part of ageing and this campaign is integral in raising societal awareness of this and encouraging older people to seek help and not ‘brush it under the carpet’.”

Gillian Stainthorpe, Greater Manchester Older Peoples Network Steering Group Member said: “This new campaign is really important because it is helping to break the taboo around older people’s mental wellbeing and encouraging them to seek support. The campaign’s strength has been the involvement of older people working on equal terms with professionals from the very beginning. Their voices have been crucial in shaping the direction of the campaign and raising awareness of self-harm and older people.”

Campaign home page

A Design for Life: new guide on building homes and communities fit for an ageing society

An ageing society requires new ways of thinking when it comes to designing homes and communities, claims a new guide for architects, planners and developers that is being rolled out across Greater Manchester

A Design For Life: Urban practices for an age-friendly city calls for urban design professionals to reject stereotypes about older people, in particular the idea that ageing is a ‘problem’ that needs fixing. The guide instead argues that professionals must embrace the diverse and changing aspirations of our older population, acknowledging the different ideas that older people have about what a good later life means for them.

A Design for Life has been developed by Dr Mark Hammond, Senior Lecturer at Manchester School of Architecture (MSA) at Manchester Metropolitan University, and Nigel Saunders, Director of Pozzoni Architecture, with contributions from practitioners and academics from across Greater Manchester.

A Design for Life presents the ideas and work to date of the GM Ageing Hub’s Housing, Planning and Ageing group at the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), a group which Dr Hammond helped to establish during his two-year secondment with GMCA.

The guide has been developed alongside GMCA’s Framework for Creating Age-Friendly Homes in Greater Manchester which sets out the ambitions to deliver quality and equality for older people in relation to the homes they live in, recognising the need for leadership and new ways of thinking about older people in urban environments.

Speculative designs for an age-friendly, intergenerational community featured in A Design for Life guide. (Image courtesy: Pozzoni Architecture)

Ambition for Ageing reports

Supporting Ageing in Place: evaluation of Ambition for Ageing's microfunding programme

A new report examines the legacy of Ambition for Ageing by drawing on the lessons learned from over seven years of supporting projects to improve age-friendliness and social connections across a range of Greater Manchesterneighbourhoods.

As the programme comes to a close on 31st March 2022, Ambition for Ageing have compiled their recommendations relating to key learning areas; equality, co-production, making investments, delivering a microfunding programme inclusively, the importance of connectivity within a place, taking a place-based, sustainability, and taking a test and learn approach.

The report includes a process evaluation of ‘Supporting Ageing in Place’; a Greater Manchester-wide microfunding programme intended to help connect older people in neighbourhoods by funding small projects of up to £2,000.

Read the report

‘It’s about people, not just Place’: How community organisations support older people in dispersed communities
 
This Ambition for Ageing report shares learning from ten community organisations commissioned to deliver activities for dispersed communities - groups of people who share an identity or experience (such as seeking asylum, being Deaf BSL users, or having the same faith) who have to travel away from their neighbourhood to meet up, buy the food they prefer, get the support they need, or practice their faith together.

The report recognised that place-based approaches have limitations in terms of meeting the needs of all marginalised groups, with place-based approaches at risk of even further excluding marginalised older people who are members of dispersed communities of identity or experience.

The report finds that organisations involved in delivering place-based working – whether funders, mainstream VCSE organisations or local authorities - should ensure that programme planning is based on a thorough understanding of the people, assets and relationships in the area to ensure dispersed community members aren’t further excluded. Community organisations are vital and should be utilised to support dispersed communities. Longer term funding for these organisations, as well as funding for social infrastructure, is necessary to ensure these communities can be supported.

Read the report

Centre for Ageing Better reports

The State of Ageing 2022 report confirms England's a more challenging country to grow old in

This comprehensive annual review of national data on ageing makes clear, a financially secure and healthy later life is becoming increasingly unlikely for millions of people.

The latest data shows a sharp increase in pensioner poverty meaning that almost 1 in 5, some 2 million people of pension age, are now living in poverty. We have also seen a reduction in our life expectancy (of 0.3 years for women and 0.4 years for men). Meanwhile, the number of years we can expect to spend in good health, without a disabling illness, continues to decline; this is now  62.4 years for men and 60.9 years for women.

In a period when the state pension age has risen to 66, employment rates among people approaching retirement age have fallen to their lowest levels since 2016. The number of older people renting rather than owning their homes has reached an all-time high.

The number of people in mid and later life who live alone – many without the traditional family structures our approach to ageing has historically relied on – has been increasing steadily, with 1.3 million men aged 65 and over living alone today, up 67% between 2000 and 2019.

Today there are almost 11 million people aged 65 and over in England - 19% of the total population. In 10 years’ time, this will have increased to almost 13 million people or 22% of the population. And, with the population ageing rapidly, the number of people at risk is growing at an alarming rate.

Read the report

Volunteering and community connectedness in the COVID-19 outbreak

These two Centre for Ageing Better reports, based on research conducted by NatCen Social Research, examine volunteering and community connectedness during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 outbreak, and the restrictions introduced to contain and slow the spread of the virus across the country, forced individuals and society to abruptly change how they lived and worked, almost overnight. These restrictions meant many people could no longer access long-standing social networks as easily as before the pandemic, with face-to-face interactions severely limited.

These two reports, based on research conducted by NatCen Social Research, examine volunteering and community connectedness in the COVID-19 outbreak. 

The first report, 'Volunteering and helping out in the COVID-19 outbreak', aims to understand the patterns of formal volunteering and informal support that emerged in, and between, July 2020 and November 2020. 

The second report, 'Community connectedness in the COVID-19 outbreak', investigates how people across England related to their neighbourhoods as the COVID-19 pandemic challenged individuals and communities while reducing their access to traditional mechanisms of support.

The data used in this report was collected in two survey waves of the NatCen Opinion Panel, using a probability-based sample recruited from people who had previously responded to the British Social Attitudes survey.

Read the reports