Healthy Living and Ageing Strategy

0 %
65+ y/o
on the North Coast
0 %
65+ y/o
in NSW
0 %
65+ y/o
in Australia
< 0 %
65+ y/o
within 10 years

Older Australians are living longer, and this means a new stage of life is emerging between the end of the conventional working age and the onset of old age. These older Australians are remaining productive for longer, working for longer, and continuing to contribute to Australian society. They often lead vibrant, active lives.1 While many North Coast residents are in this life stage, they are gradually moving into old age.

More than 20% of the North Coast population are aged over 65 compared to 18.5% for NSW and 15.7% for Australia. Given this over-representation, and the high proportion with chronic conditions, Healthy Living and Ageing was chosen for the second regional strategy of the North Coast Collective.  It is expected those over 65 will easily reach 30% of our population in 10 years.

We cannot continue to work in the same way.  Health professionals need to partner with older people and their families to manage health and chronic illness. Non-disease-focused approaches are needed to support older people to age well.

Healthy North Coast has supported the North Coast Collective by leading a needs assessment of the aged population and conducting a literature review. Both of these have shown an explicit need to develop a regional Healthy Living and Ageing Strategy.

Our healthy ageing agenda

The North Coast Collective is committed to a positive healthy ageing agenda on the North Coast to:

Strategy development

The strategy will provide a blueprint for future investment into health, aged care and social services using systems dynamic modelling (SDM) and input from the community. Strategy development will be undertaken during 2021-22 and include:

SDM workshops will be held from June to October 2021 with consumers, carers, clinicians, councils, transport planners, Department of Communities and Justice, and Department of Education.