Talk 1: Are we ready to live longer & Take Five to Age Well in Scottish Communities - Ageing Well Public Talks Series 2024/25

Join us for the first in the Ageing Well Public Talk series 2024/2025 where we are joined by Age Scotland

In this session, Doug and colleagues will share learning from his experiences working with older people directly in the community, to age well. Recently, Age Scotland, with Doug as Lead, piloted an offline pledge to work with diverse groups of participants alongside the main Take Five to Age Well Pledge. Offline pledging explored how older people benefit from peer support and group facilitators while using primarily paper-based resources to enable participation by those who prefer or require alternatives to digital engagement. 

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Watch a live stream of the meeting via Stadium

The speakers

Dr Jitka Vseteckova - Senior Lecturer Health and Social Care, Faculty of Wellbeing, Education & Language Studies, The Open University. Jitka has a longstanding interest and passion in researching ageing and engaging with the public.  

Doug Anthoney - is the Health and Wellbeing Manager at Age Scotland. His role is to develop messages and resources that engage and empower people to age well. He works with older people directly and with professionals and volunteers who support them.

About the series

In the 'Ageing Well Public Talk series' we are exploring how important it is, over our lifespan, to maintain well-balanced nutrition and hydration as well as regular physical and social activity in older age, also known as the 'Five Pillars of Ageing Well'. Ageing demonstrates most significantly when we reach a certain age, the usual benchmark being 65+, but ageing starts much sooner and the way ageing demonstrates when we are over 65 depends on decisions we have been making over our life span.

The series and related materials such as ‘The Five Pillars of Ageing Well’ became the cornerstones of further engagement with the public, specifically around COVID-19 and the relating self-isolation, which are now available on the OU website and the Internet.

The overall aim of these series of interventions is to facilitate a step change in user behaviour and support service provision. Self-management and becoming partner in our own health care is an important aspect of these talks. This may have a wider impact in healthcare economies, as ageing and related co-morbidities have a substantial health and economic burden footprint.

AWPTS is a highly adaptable tool for addressing also the needs of diverse groups requiring tailored interventions, for instance, heart failure and diabetes, where prevention and sustained self-management are crucial for improving quality of life. Since 2019, over 25,000 members of the public have engaged with the talks nationally, and the AWPTS portfolio of resources has engaged over 90,000 people globally; our regular feedback confirms that this intervention has increased knowledge of age-related processes, attitudes to health and wellbeing, confidence in self-management and lifestyle choices for healthy ageing among the public as well as practitioners, professionals, and clinicians who support ageing populations in their professional roles.

This event will be held on Zoom and live streamed to Stadium. The organiser will contact you with instructions on how to access the event.

For more information about the event or if you have any queries, please email WELS Research Events

All talks last between 60-90 min.