Age Friendly
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Bradley and McGuigan had prepared their<br />
questions in advance: What are the key issues<br />
facing older people in Monaghan? What are the<br />
important issues the <strong>Age</strong> <strong>Friendly</strong> programme<br />
should address? What are the examples of<br />
good practice in the county? “It was also<br />
important that the people understood that<br />
the <strong>Age</strong> <strong>Friendly</strong> County programme wouldn’t<br />
displace anything that they do already or<br />
replicate other work. It’s all about giving people<br />
a voice and putting a structure around it so that<br />
their voices are heard,” adds McGuigan.<br />
Members of the <strong>Age</strong> <strong>Friendly</strong> Alliance acted as<br />
facilitators at round tables with older people<br />
from the county. This provided a perfect<br />
opportunity for those planning services to tease<br />
out the key issues that impact on the daily life for<br />
older people living in Monaghan. People spoke<br />
frankly about what <strong>Age</strong> <strong>Friendly</strong> could address<br />
and what was already working well in the county.<br />
“The older people were very solution focused<br />
which meant we made good progress from<br />
the start,” says Bradley. “The public sector<br />
often focuses on the problems but the people<br />
who experience the problems are always the<br />
ones who have the best solution,” she adds.<br />
All those who attended the launch were asked<br />
to consider joining an Older People’s Council.<br />
To this end, they left their contact details so<br />
Bradley could invite them to a meeting to elect<br />
people onto the Older People’s Forum and its<br />
Executive Committee in the near future.<br />
How the Older People’s Forum was Set Up<br />
To gather as widely representative a Older People’s Forum as possible, Bernie Bradley<br />
invited older people in rural parts of County Monaghan to focus groups to outline the<br />
ethos of <strong>Age</strong> Friendliness and invite them to join the forum. Bradley realised that it would<br />
be a great help to have a Coordinator of the Older People’s Forum in Monaghan. She<br />
approaches the Director of Services for community and enterprise within Monaghan<br />
County Council to get funding to employ someone one day a week. This funding was<br />
granted and then Bradley recruited the coordinator of the Community and Voluntary<br />
Forum to administer the Older People’s Forum on this basis. [Bradley suggests the local<br />
authority should continue to employ a part-time co-ordinator for the Older People’s<br />
Forum through the new Public Participation Network which will replace the Community<br />
and Voluntary Forum].<br />
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