Planning for the future: Older people in Northern Ireland
This exciting event was held in Ulster University on 16 March 2016, as part of the Imagine Belfast festival. The workshop was organised by was organised by Alexandra Chapman and Ciara Fitzpatrick, who are both PhD students at Ulster University.  Alexandra is also a member of the ARK Ageing Programme team.

At the start of the event, Kevin Keenan (Assistant Director of Older People and Adult Services, Health and Social Care Board) gave an overview on planning services for older people in Northern Ireland.

The audience were then asked to work in small groups to identify three innovative policy ideas relating to health and social care, and to present one of these.  The best idea was then selected by a judging panel, comprising:

Evelyn Hoy, Chief Executive, Commissioner for Older People
Gill Smith, Assistant Director, Transforming Your Care
Duane Farrell, Charity Director, AgeNI
Ann Marie Gray, ARK Policy Director, Ulster University
Gemma Carney, ARK Ageing Programme, Queen’s University Belfast

There was alot of discussion among the audience, as well as healthy competition during the presentations! The winning idea focused on age-friendly schools where older people help children with numeracy and literacy, and where children are trained as dementia friends. The idea has already been successfully piloted by Linking Generations.

Read Imagine Belfast – Enter the campervan of dreams and imagine the future we all deserve… a blog by Gemma Carney, which focuses on this event.