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O'Connor, Grainne; de Lappe, Joseph and Vseteckova, Jitka
(2023).
Abstract
The academic language of evidence-based research on ageing well can feel distant from the lived experiences of older people contending with cost-of-living challenges or caring responsibilities. An ‘Ivory Tower’ gap acts as a barrier to educating older people about lifestyle changes that promote healthier ageing. Since 2019, the Ageing Well Public Talk Series (AWPTS) team at The Open University (OU) in the United Kingdom (UK) has pioneered a collaborative, co-produced approach to addressing this gap. Structured around the Five Pillars for Ageing Well (nutrition, hydration, physical activity, social and cognitive stimulation), AWPTS is an evidence-based educational model which translates current research from the field of ageing into ‘bitesized’ information easily manageable by its target audiences. Over the past three years, an ongoing series of public talks based around the Five Pillars were delivered by the AWPTS team in the UK and worldwide. The AWPTS along with a portfolio of free resources (podcasts, short films, short accessible articles, short online OpenLearn courses and other resources) were accessed by over 80,000 people globally. The AWPTS team built a network of stakeholder health and voluntary organisations and members of the public across the UK. This paper describes how this public health educational intervention continues to develop and evolve post Covid-19. Through feedback and reflection, we outline the impact of the AWPTS on individuals and communities who have engaged with the Five Pillars learning model, and how this model can be expanded to promote sustained behaviour change around healthier ageing at a societal level.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
