Age-friendly environments, such as in the home, community, foster healthy and active ageing by building and maintaining intrinsic capacity across the life course and enabling greater functional ability in someone with a given level of capacity, says the World Health Organization (WHO) in its global report on health and ageing.

According to the WHO, in practical terms, age-friendly environments are free from physical and social barriers and supported by policies, systems, services, products and technologies that:

• promote health and build and maintain physical and mental capacity across the life course; and

• enable people, even when experiencing capacity loss, to continue to do the things they value.

Age-friendly practices, it said, help build older peoples abilities to:

• meet their basic needs;

• learn, grow and make decisions;

• be mobile;

• build and maintain relationships; and

• contribute.

In doing so, age-friendly practices:

• recognise the wide range of capacities and resources among older people;

• anticipate and respond flexibly to ageing-related needs and preferences;

• respect older people’s decisions and lifestyle choices;

• reduce inequities;

• protect those who are most vulnerable; and

• promote older people’s inclusion in and contribute to all areas of community life.

Source: World Health Organization