Innovation: International Council on Active Ageing

USA

AAI Domains:

• Independent, healthy and secure living (increasing healthy life expectancy)

• Participation in society (political participation)

Active ageing and social innovations take differing forms depending on the social situation in which they are formulated that involve different roles for the state and the market and changing views about the role of individual responsibility. Active ageing is a multi-faceted concept that involves a role for individuals, public authorities, firms and not-for-profit organisations across a range of areas. Promoting the concept of active ageing as an opportunity and responsibility that affects all part of society is a task that needs to be acknowledged and embraced widely.

The International Council on Active Ageing (ICAA) is a professional association founded in 2001 by Colin Milner to promote active ageing and improve the quality of life of older adults in the USA and beyond. It is not a policymaking body or a lobby group but an association with over 9,000 organisational and individual members managing over 40,000 locations for older people in 37 states around the world.

The ICAA’s mission is to change society’s perceptions of ageing with a focus on wellness based on emotional, vocational, physical, spiritual, intellectual, social, environmental dimensions through the provision of education, information, resources and tools to members. It produces a series of papers written by experts from a variety of fields offering best practice guidance for older people and those who provide care to this group.

The ICAA works in partnership with a wide range of organisations in the public, not-for-profit and for profit sectors to promote active ageing as a concept for all people and to facilitate the exchange of experience and good practice. The ICAA facilitates the organisation of Active Ageing Week events that members conduct to celebrate ageing, engage more older people in wellness activities and to promote the benefits of a healthy and active lifestyle.

These events are free for older adults to attend as they are financed by corporate sponsorship with a commercial interest in promoting their products and services to this increasing and affluent generation of ‘baby boomers.’ The Active Ageing Week events usually have particular theme days, such as foot health or taking up a new form of physical activity, and are a mixture of opportunities for marketing and for health and well-being education.

Another important activity that the IACC has undertaken is the ‘Changing the Way We Age’ campaign that started in 2011 with two distinct but related strands of activity. The rebranding ageing strand is aimed at the media and people in the market sector and seeks to change the way the media and corporations conceptualise older people and ageing through positive coverage of inter-generational activities. The aim is to influence those who form opinions and corporate executives in language that they relate to about the benefits and opportunities that an ageing society presents and to challenge the negative stereotypes of ageing and the economic costs of the demographic shift.

The second strand is aimed at the general public with an emphasis on changing expectations of ageing among adults of all ages and promoting inter-generational activity. For example, the ICAA is part of the Let’s Move! initiative, promoted by Michelle Obama in her role as First Lady, that seeks to increase the level of physical activity undertaken by Americans of all ages.

In relation to active ageing, the ICAA promotes active ageing with the intention of increasing healthy life expectancy among older people and improving the quality of life for those older people who experience limitations on the daily activities of life. It promotes and encourages older people to undertake more physical exercise and through the Changing the Way We Age campaign it promotes political participation in the broad sense of seeking to influence public opinion and social attitudes.

Websites

ICAA

Active Ageing Week

Changing the Way We Age