Tackling ageism in our communities

Paul McGarry, has played a key role in the Age-friendly movement for several decades including as a founding member of the UK Network of Age-friendly Communities.

He has led multi-agency urban ageing partnerships over the past two decades and for the past seven years, he has been Head of the Greater Manchester Ageing Hub.  

He has also had a number of journal articles on ageing published.

Here is just a taster of his Ageism Lives interview with our Deputy Director for Localities, Natalie Turner. To see the interview in full, click here.

“Well, I think right from the outset of age friendly programs as they're known, in the 2000s, there's been a debate inside the age friendly movement about [whether age-friendly communities are just for older people] and there's a number of number of ways of answering it. 

“In general, I think it's true that if you make local neighbourhoods and communities better places for older people to live in the kind of physical environment, social environment and so on, generally speaking, it's good for everyone.” 

“If you're sat at home one day and thinking you want to make a difference, there are huge opportunities in your community and elsewhere to roll your sleeves up and get involved in something and I think this is where we certainly need to do more."

“I think there's a huge need frankly, to build, an older people's movement of older people over the next five years or so.  

“If you look at other countries, I think they're stronger and I think we need to do more of that.” 

“There's a universal quality to ageing, it's something we all do if we're lucky. 

“Which means that actually it's something that applies to in so many different situations, so many different lives.

“So there’s a universal character to ageing, which makes it interesting, exciting. 

“It’s an emerging issue despite everything, it’s an emerging issue.”