Current project
Online workshop: Bristol Older People’s Forum
August 2021
For the first of our future of ageing engagement workshops, members of the Bristol Older People’s Forum (BOPF) were invited to create drawings on how science and health technologies might support a ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ older age. Working group member Muna Al-Jawad – a cartoonist, and consultant in medicine for older people at the Royal Sussex County Hospital – facilitated the virtual workshop and invited participants to discuss their drawings and the ideas behind them.
Following the workshop, using key themes raised by Forum members’ drawings and discussions around technology and older age (and inspired by the works of Lewis Carroll), a summary ‘meta-cartoon’ titled ‘Alice in Tech-Land’ was created by Muna (see below).
Thank you to the members of the BOPF for supporting this workshop, and Muna Al-Jawad for facilitating the workshop and drawing ‘Alice in Tech-Land’ cartoons.
Open forum: Greater Manchester Older People’s Network, in collaboration with Sonder Radio
August 2021
For the second of our future of ageing engagement workshops, an online event took place which included a performance from poet Roger McGough, who read his poem ‘Love later life’, a piece commissioned by Age UK in 2014. The event also included performances from musician Martin Stephenson who performed ‘Old and only in the way’.
These performances were used to open discussions with the workshop’s participants around issues such as their concerns around getting older, the technologies that might be used to support them in older age, and what the future of ‘living well’ in older age might ‘look like’.
A broadcast bringing together the participants’ discussions was aired on Sonder Radio.
Thank you to the members of the GMOPN, Sonder Radio, and the other residents in Manchester who took part in and supported the workshop.
Workshop: West Bromwich African Caribbean Resource Centre
23 March 2022
This was the third of our engagement workshops, and was facilitated by Bella Starling, Chair of the future of ageing working group.
On the day, older members of the West Bromwich African Caribbean Resource Centre (WBACRC) were invited to take part in a focus group where they could share their opinions on health and wellbeing technologies. All of the people who took part were aged 75 years and older, live in the local West Bromwich area, and are of African Caribbean origin.
Following the focus group, our researcher Molly Gray created an insightful blog, highlighting the key themes from the discussions that took place.
Thank you to the members and staff of WBACRC especially Shane Ward (Chief Executive) for organising and supporting this engagement workshop.
Intergenerational roundtable: Exeter University
April 2022
The fourth of our future of ageing engagement workshops took place in Exeter, and involved a diverse, intergenerational group of participants – including colleagues of working group member, Ann Gallagher, from the Exeter Academy of Nursing.
The event consisted of 41 participants across eight roundtables. The majority of this group were college and university students (aged 16-25 years), with a smaller number of middle-aged and older adults (aged 50-70 years).
The roundtable event was split into two key discussions on the roles of both technology, and biomedicine (geroscience), in healthy ageing. For the first session, the film ‘Uninvited Guests’ was used as a stimulus for group discussions; and for the second session, another member of our working group, Janet Lord, gave a short presentation on geroscience. This presentation was aimed at encouraging participants to put forward any questions they may have had on geroscience and research.
Workshop: Greater Manchester Growing Older with Learning Disabilities (GM GOLD)
June 2022
For the fifth and final of our future of ageing engagement workshops, our Researcher, Molly Gray, facilitated this creative workshop with Melanie Chapman, a Research Fellow (Disability & Community) from Manchester Metropolitan University, who co-founded and leads the research team GM GOLD.
10 older adults with learning disabilities took part in the workshop which was split into two sessions, exploring how health and wellbeing technologies can support people in later life, and values in older age.
The first session brought out participant’s creative flares through using crafting materials to design a ‘dream machine’ that they would want in later life to improve healthy ageing. Following this first session, our Researcher, Molly Gray, wrote a blog titled ‘If you could design your ‘dream machine’ to help you in older age, what would it be?’
The second workshop consisted of an interview-style filming session (see below), run by Andy Needle, project coordinator from Manchester People First, a self-advocacy group for adults with a learning disability.
Public dialogue on the future of ageing
Summer 2022
We commissioned a deliberative public dialogue as part of the in-depth inquiry on ageing, to help us to ensure our suggested policy changes are ethical, rational, informed and inclusive of public views and values. Thinks Insight & Strategy (previously known as BritainThinks), an insight and strategy consultancy, ran this for us and produced report of the public dialogue.