Across the UK, older people are reported to have been extremely negatively affected by the disease and restrictions imposed to limit risk. This includes reduced physical activity and, potentially, heightened isolation. However, we do not yet know the full impact of the pandemic on how older people can remain socially connected to the places, space and people where they live.

Developing Age Friendly Communities is an Emergent Post-Pandemic World is delivered in partnership by the University of Salford, Inspiring Communities Together, Age UK Salford, Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Greenwich. The project received funding from the Dunhill Medical Trust to gather new evidence about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on older people and their relationships with other people and places. Over two years, we have been investigating how older people have made connections within and around their environments during the pandemic, what has been the impact of Covid-19 on the places where older people live and how has support for older people changed since the pandemic.

Voice and influence project

The project has been co-design and co-production with older people through focus groups and 1-1 conversations to capture their individual and collective story of life after Covid. The collective story has been captured in a visual and creative way using photograph as a visual aid.

The following questions have lead conversations:

Questions

· These are the people who matter to me

· These are the places that matter to me

· These are the things that matter to me

· This is what life since the pandemic means to mean:

· this is what has returned;

· this is what has been lost;

· this is what is new

The project will help identify similarities in the individual stories of what matters to the participants to create a collective story. These findings will form part of the final evaluation report. The report will be shared with our partner agencies to help find solutions to barriers and issues, to improve access to service provision and help develop better Age Friendly Places for people to grow older.

Read The Voice and influence project book Here

Read the Final Project Report

Read the Executive Summary

The research was undertaken by the University of Salford and Manchester Metropolitan University and the report outlines the experiences of providing and accessing activities remotely though the Age Friendly Salford network.

Some of the key findings were:

• Older people are adaptable and quickly engage with new modes of delivery but need support to do so. This should be tailored to individual needs and contexts. Working online does not negate the need for person-centred care and support and can bring the need for this into even sharper focus
• Remote delivery cannot replace face-to-face experience. Specific activities or support service can be delivered, but it is important to accept what might be lost with the lack of co-proximity
• The Age-Friendly Salford agenda should continue to engage with different types of places across the city and especially online. Initiatives to support growing older in the city should not be restricted to physical spaces.
• A city-wide conversation is needed about how to support older people beyond the pandemic. Older people should be at the heart of this.

Read the Summary Report here: