Take Five Case Studies

Many people engaged with Take Five to Age Well online, using our digital resources and content. Below you can explore a selection of interviews to find out what they learned about themselves regarding ageing well and the changes they made as a result:

Alan

For Alan Take Five was an opportunity and a good motivation for taking better control of his health.

Chrissie

Chrissie felt that Take Five is a positive, meaningful initiative that reflects her values and experience. 

Linda

Linda discovered how a tiny shift can create a lasting habit and now thinks everyone needs “a little oomph” sometimes.

Liz

Liz has transformed her daily routine, her health and even her outlook on ageing with one simple Take Five change.

Patricia

Patricia felt like Take Five would be a helpful, relevant, and positive initiative for someone at her stage of life.

Pauline

From resetting her habits to taking practical steps, Pauline now looks after her wellbeing and encourages friends and family to join her.

Sinead

Sinead used the Take Five as a great opportunity to prioritise her health, change small things and see how other changes follow too.

Take Five to Age Well has also been used offline in community groups, clubs and informal gatherings. These case studies show the difference the campaign made when people came together in person to explore what ageing well means to them:

Age Scotland

Take Five to Age Well (Take Five) is a healthy ageing initiative from The Open University that Age Scotland has been a partner in since 2022. The campaign offers encouragement and a framework for individuals to change habits for healthy ageing in one or more of The Open University’s ‘Five Pillars of Ageing Well’ areas: nutrition, hydration, physical, social and cognitive stimulation.

Super Snowdrops

The Super Snowdrops in Lochgilphead show how a supportive group can use Take 5 to boost confidence and help members take personal steps towards ageing well.

Pickleball Group

The Pickleball Group in Perth built Take Five into their regular meet-ups. Their story highlights how supporting one another to stay on track can deepen existing activities and create space for meaningful discussion.

Yoker Resource Centre

The Yokers group based in Glasgow adapted Take Five ideas to suit their members and local context showing how flexible the campaign can be.

Take Five to Age Well has also been adopted by organisations who want to support healthy, positive ageing in their communities. Below, partners share what Take Five to Age Well helped them achieve and how they integrated the campaign into their work.

Active Dorset

Active Dorset is one of the 43 Active Partnership in England. Active Dorset work with partners through a system change approach to increase the numbers of people that are supported to be more physically active.

AgeWell by BridgitCare

AgeWell is a digital healthy ageing support platform designed to help people live well for longer. It offers friendly, personalised support across the Open University’s Five Pillars approach to healthy ageing, helping users think about movement, eating well, hydration, mental stimulation, and social engagement. The AgeWell platform was built, with contributions from Age UK and The Open University, for the purpose of supporting the Take Five to Age Well public health campaign in 2025.

Haringey Experiential Age Well Festival

Haringey has among the highest levels of frailty among over 50s in London, with the North Central London Integrated Care Board specifically mentioning ‘Ageing Well’ as being pivotal within its population health strategy. While initiatives like The Open University’s ‘Ageing Well Public Talk Series’ and the ‘Take Five to Age Well’ pledge have helped translate this knowledge into practical actions, engagement remains disproportionate, especially among deprived and diverse communities.

NHS Take5 Care+

The original Take5 intervention promotes health through simple, evidence-informed actions across five behavioural domains: nutrition, hydration, physical activity, social connection, and cognitive stimulation. Implemented across all four UK nations in 2023 and 2025, it engaged over 5,000 participants, demonstrating high acceptability, scalability, and alignment with NHS prevention and self-management priorities. Behavioural science suggests that diagnosis can create a “teachable moment”, when individuals may be more open to behaviour change. Take5 is co-designed to build self-confidence and empowerment following diagnosis of a long-term condition.

Haematology patients, particularly those with chronic or low-grade malignancies, often experience uncertainty, fatigue, reduced functional capacity, and psychological distress. Many patients are monitored for several years before entering acute cancer care or survivorship services, resulting in fragmented support across secondary, primary, and community care. Some patients are diagnosed with cancer but initially placed on a “watch and monitor” pathway, with clinicians reporting limited to help patients maintain health and develop self-management skills.

Take5Care+ is a tailored support intervention for adults newly diagnosed with haematological neoplasms. It builds on the established Take Five to Age Well model (Take 5), adapting it to address challenges faced by haematology patients after diagnosis and during monitoring. The project responds to a recognised gap in routine care: while clinical pathways address disease management, patients often receive limited support to maintain wellbeing and develop sustainable self-management behaviours. The intervention incorporates prehabilitation principles, encouraging actions that strengthen physical, psychological, and social resilience before treatment or during monitoring.  A pilot is currently running at Northampton General Hospital (NGH).

More information to be available soon. 

Hillingdon Council & GP Federation & NHS Northwest London Trust & Age UK Hillingdon/Harrow/Brent

Take Five is an award-winning, low-cost public health UK-wide campaign, uniquely blending an evidence-based model of a month-long challenge (pledge) with evidence-based, public-facing, and scientifically curated educational content in the form of engagement emails/newsletters rooted in science around behaviour change. After running successfully at the national level and engaging over 5,000 participants in 2023& 2025, and in partnership with The OU, the Hillingdon Council, GP Federation, AGE UK Hillingdon, Harrow and Brent, NHS Northwest London Trust, and Integrated Care Board Northwest London are working together to bring the Take Five back to support specifically the patient population in Hillingdon Borough with delaying the progression of Frailty.

For more information visit the Hillingdon website.