Council Celebrates Positive Ageing Month in Newry Mourne and Down District
Newry Mourne and Down District Council alongside the Southern Health and Social Care Trust is encouraging local groups to get involved online as part of Positive Ageing Month.
The purpose of this month is to recognise, highlight, celebrate and promote the many positive aspects of growing old and the very valuable contribution that the over 50s continue to make within our community.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions the celebrations for this year’s event will take place in the virtual world with many events taking place via Zoom or similar online applications.
Newry Mourne and Down District Council Deputy Chairperson, Councillor Oonagh Magennis, said she was pleased with the Council’s commitment to developing and promoting the Age Friendly initiative and events such as Positive Ageing Month.
“As people live longer, we all need to consider how best to support the older generation in our community – but also how best to celebrate them,” she said. “Positive Ageing Month offers opportunities for a range of events, activities and programmes to be held which celebrate the contribution older people make to their communities.”
Councillor Magennis will officially open Positive Ageing Month with a virtual ‘Mad Hatters Tea Party’ on Wednesday 6 October. For this event the organisers enlisted the help of four local schools — St Paul’s High School, Bessbrook; Newry High School; St Mark’s High School, Warrenpoint; and St Louis Grammar School, Kilkeel.
They will ask students to deliver tea boxes to the homes of 50 older people in their respective areas. The boxes contain a variety of edible goodies for consumption during the tea party but there will also be an invitation to join the ‘Mad Hatters Tea Party’ with instructions of how to get online for the event. The pupils delivering the tea box will show the recipient how to do this via their home computer devices, or phone.
Positive Ageing Month has a wide range of free online sessions for older people to attend, covering topics such as:
• cyber safety,
• online privacy and security,
• eat well and cookery demos,
• health workshops including dementia and Bowel Cancer awareness,
• money and energy saving advice and
• virtual sing-a-longs and reminiscence sessions.
For more information on the events taking place for Positive Ageing Month and to download the Calendar of Events please visit:
https://www.newrymournedown.org/health-and-wellbeing
The Positive Ageing Month event has been managed by a steering group consisting of representatives from Newry, Mourne and Down District Council, Southern Health and Social Care Trust, Volunteer Now, Southern Age Well Network (SAWN), Newry U3A and independent member Jennifer Kelly.
Hargey committed to deliver for older people
Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey has said promoting the wellbeing of older people and ensuring they can enjoy life to the fullest must remain a priority.
She was speaking marking the 31st UN International Day of Older Persons and the beginning of Positive Ageing Month.
The Minister said: “Promoting the wellbeing of older people and ensuring they can enjoy later life to the fullest is a priority for my Department.
“People here are living longer than ever and our older citizens make a significant contribution to society, whether that be volunteering, continuing to work or providing childcare. They have also shown fortitude and determination in overcoming the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“My Department continues work to create an age friendly community in which people, as they grow older, are valued and supported to live actively to their fullest potential, with their rights respected and with dignity protected.
“This includes appropriate housing to meet the needs of our ageing population, financial support to pay heating fuel expenses over the colder months and access to advice service to ensure individuals are receiving the support they are entitled to.”
Linda Robinson, Chief Executive of Age NI said, “We welcome the commitment by the Minister to ensure older people live well and enjoy later life. Age NI’s Lived Experience Report 2021 has identified the issues that matter most to older people and outlined a clear agenda for action for policy and decision makers.
“We look forward to working with the Minister and her Department on bringing about changes that will really make a difference to the everyday lives of older people, and not just for today, International Day for Older People.
“We know that older people want to play their part in local communities, and they are keen to be engaged and listened to when it comes to planning a better future for all of us as we age.
“With a larger proportion of older people in our society than ever before, the time is right to ensure Northern Ireland has fully age-inclusive services right across the board. We can all benefit from living in age friendly communities, where people are welcomed, get the extra help they need and are connected to the things that matter to them.”
