Everyone - usually thinking of their own lives – wonders when 'old age' starts, and asks what an 'older person' is? It’s not important. There is no age hurdle that we jump over to become old. Old isn’t a number - ageing is a continuous process throughout life.
The Later Years Partnership agenda is concerned with issues that affect people over 50 – job discrimination, active retirement and opportunities, as well as issues of care, frailty and isolation. These issues are connected; active, healthy ageing can reduce the risks of ill health, falls, isolation and dependency later on.
The issues and choices of our fifties affect how we age in our seventies. And for those who suffer exclusion and inequality in society throughout life, issues associated with ageing can start earlier than for others.
The Later Years agenda is about how we address all those issues that affect the quality of life of people in their fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties and beyond.
