Plenary Session 1 : Healthy Ageing and the role of physical and social environments

Abstract

Overview:The UN Decade of Healthy Ageing aims to foster the ability of people in the second half of life to be and to do the things they value. But, since older populations are extremely heterogenous, action cannot be generic. In 2015, WHO developed a life course approach that is tailored around the intrinsic capacity of the individual (including their cognitive and psychological capacity). This presentation will explore how this framework can help identify opportunities to foster healthy ageing through strategies to retain the highest level of capacity possible; break down ageist barriers; build environments that compensate for losses of capacity; and enable people to maintain lives of meaning and dignity despite significant losses.