A Mosaic Podcast: Building Age Inclusive Communities.

Another opportunity to express views on ageing and longevity issues came in late February when I was invited to a podcast interview by Jane Teasdale co-owner and Director of Business Development & Community Relations at Mosaic Home Care based in Toronto Canada. The podcast title Building Age Inclusive Communities is one of my core topic areas of focus in my research, commentary and more recently my participation with ISO standards development for Smart Multigenerational Neighbourhoods.

Listening again to my podcast conversation with Jane Teasdale as she asked me about my background and how I became interested in this field of interest, it reminded me that it has been an evolutionary process over a period of twenty four years, with perhaps the germination coming from my read of Theodore Roszak’s 2001 book Longevity Revolution where one line still sticks with me – “If more people are going to live longer, it’s time to start finding a good social use for those extra years”

If there was one milestone moment though, that truly moved me more intently to be more conversant with the multiple facets of ageing and longevity, it was joining the Sheridan College Elder Research Centre Business of Aging Global Network in 2012. There I met the Director Pat Spadafora a thought leader in this field now operating Kaleidscope Consulting. Thanks to Pat and the Sheridan crew I have a deep appreciation for the learning and insights gained.

One moment at Sheridan in particular stood out when in 2013, I met and heard the President of International Longevity Centre in Brazil, Alexandre Kalache. Drawing full circle to Roszak in his presentation on the many dimensions of the Longevity Revolution, Kalache said – “What do we do with this gift of longevity?”

Back to the Mosaic Care podcast, when Jane asked me to speak to interest and work on Age Inclusive or Age Friendly Communities, I proposed much of what I’ve been saying for the last decade, and I might add has in many ways become more evident in the views, actions or efforts of others; we need a reboot of the term Age-Friendly from its origins in 2007 with the WHO Age Friendly Cities Guide.

Up to now, when we’ve heard the term age-friendly community, it has run the risk of sounding like tokenism; a dialogue that has often been wrapped in a seniors-centric bubble. Though interpretations and community actions have changed with more of a lean into an intergenerational context, now and in future, if input beyond current older populations is to be encouraged, a more appropriate term for me is Age Inclusive.

The evolution of age friendly community is every generation’s project. Re-coding a longevity society in the next decade is about the way we message the universal relevancy of a global Age-Inclusive (AI) movement – for the upcoming generations who are fast becoming our elder caregivers and future beneficiaries of the choices we make today.