Creative ageing: the social policy challenge.

Abstract

By 2071, the number of people over 65 could double to nearly 21.3 million, while the number of people aged 80 and over could more than treble to 9.5 million. Over the next 30 years, the number of people with dementia in the UK could double to 1.4 million. The current policy landscape marks a shift in thinking, away from ‘deficit’ models of later life towards a paradigm shift which ‘allows people to realise their potential for physical, social, and mental wellbeing throughout the life-course and to participate in society’ (World Health Organisation 2002, p. 3). Where previous models of later-life care have focused on supporting acute illness in older age, health-care systems are now forced to find ways to support individuals to take responsibility for their own health within their own communities. In 2008, the New Economics Foundation (NEF) was commissioned by the UK Government’s Foresight Project on Mental Capital and Wellbeing to review the interdisciplinary work of more than 400 researchers from across the world. The aim was to identify a set of evidencebased actions to improve wellbeing which individuals could be encouraged to build into their daily lives. This was distilled down to the Five Ways to Wellbeing, which is now a major driver of health policy in the UK. They are: connect, be active, take notice, keep learning, give This chapter will look at how different types of creativity in older age can meet the social policy recommendations embodied within the Five Ways to Wellbeing with specific detailed examples. The chapter will also relate this to the ongoing work on wellbeing, post-2008. Though some commentators have suggested this formulation is absurdly reductive, Five Ways to Wellbeing has had considerable success in being accessible to a wide-range of audiences and easy to embed in policy statements and to communicate to community-based organisational teams. Following a brief introduction to the British policy context, this chapter looks at ways in which Five Ways to Wellbeing can be realised through arts engagement providing detailed examples of arts practices that help sustain a creative older age.