The 10 Priorities provide the concrete actions that are needed to achieve the objectives of the WHO Global strategy and action plan on ageing and health. Each priority is crucial to enable the world to take on a decade of concerted action on Healthy Ageing (2020-2030). Many are inextricably linked and all will require collaboration with many key partners. Healthy Ageing will not become a reality without focused global action, and these ten priorities provide the path forward.
1 October 2017 - WHO celebrated this year’s International Day of Older Persons by highlighting that universal health coverage can’t be achieved if we leave older people behind. Universal health coverage is the foundation for achieving the health objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals, and a crucial step towards building a future where we are able to participate, contribute and exploit
our talents into older age. Universal health coverage, that meets the needs of older adults, is technically and financially possible.
To ensure adults live not only longer but healthier lives, a Global strategy and action plan on ageing and health was adopted in May 2016 by the World Health Assembly. This Strategy focuses on five strategic objectives and is a significant step forward in
establishing a framework to achieve Healthy Ageing for all. It includes a call for countries to commit to action, and develop
age-friendly environments. It also outlines the need to align health systems to the needs of older people, and the development of sustainable and equitable systems of long-term care. It emphasises the importance of improved data, measurement, and research,
and involving older people in all decisions that concern them.
Comprehensive public health action on population ageing is urgently needed. This will require fundamental shifts, not just in the things we do, but in how we think about ageing itself. The 2015 World report on ageing and health outlines a framework for action to foster Healthy Ageing built around the new concepts of functional ability and intrinsic capacity. This will require a transformation of health systems away from disease-based curative models and towards the provision of older-person-centred and integrated care. Making
these investments will have valuable social and economic returns, both in terms of health and wellbeing of older people and in
enabling their on-going participation in society.
September 2015 - Cities and communities world-wide strive to become more age-friendly. They seek to better adapt to the needs of
their ageing populations. But what are they actually doing? Browse the new database to find out. Small measures can make a big difference. They are shared here by communities, for communities.