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SAC Supports Project to Improve Life for Rural Communities’ Older People
Dr Sarah Skerratt talking at O4O (Older People for Older People) (opens in new window)
SAC has played in a key role on a three-year European project which worked with rural communities in Scotland, Greenland, Sweden, Finland and Northern Ireland to identify older people’s needs for basic services and enhance their quality of life.
O4O (Older People for Older People) was an EU Northern Periphery Programme Project.
In some regions, O4O worked with communities to set up social enterprises run by older people to provide basic services for other older people. These were intended to fill gaps or augment current public sector services and enhance older people’s health and wellbeing.
Other quality of life initiatives which have resulted from the project include:
- Community transport
- Community-owned supported housing for older people
- Helping schemes
- Friendship schemes
Senior SAC Researcher Dr Sarah Skerratt led the context mapping element of the O4O which explored how local, regional and national policies and culture helped or hindered the project.
Sarah outlined her research findings at a recent event held at the Scottish Parliament to mark the end of 040. The MSPs and high profile organisations in attendance discussed the national implications of the project and considered ways in which O4Os findings and achievements can continue to benefit older people living in rural Scotland.
Sarah said: “The idea of older people running services for older people is something that generated a lot of interest and we hope that SAC may continue to play a role in informing policy makers about this and other initiatives that meet the needs of rural communities and make life better for the older people living in them.”