Central and Local Governments Cooperate to Build Age-friendly Cities. A Chinese saying goes: “elders are a treasure”. Taiwan will have evolved into an aging society by 2018. How to build an age-friendly environment to help the elderly enjoy their life, age actively, and live healthily and happily has become the government’s priority.
In response to the concept of “active aging” and “age-friendly cities” upheld by WHO in 2010, the Health Promotion Administration has actively shaped Taiwan as an age-friendly society from eight aspects: respect and social inclusion; social participation; outdoor spaces and buildings; transportation; housing; communication and information; community support and health services; and civic participation and employment. The Administration has helped every city and county government review the current living environment for the elderly, and proposed improvement plans and recommendations regarding insufficient infrastructure and insight cities, in the hope that all cities and counties may create an age-friendly environment.
Based on “Advocate, Enable, and Mediate”, Health Promotion Administration Launched the Program
The Health Promotion Administration played a key role in bringing about age-friendly cities across Taiwan by leading each city and county to promote the “age-friendly city” program based on three functions: “advocate”, “enable”, and “mediate”.
In terms of “advocate”, the “age-friendly city” policy was led by the central government and fulfilled by local governments. The governmental departments led public and private agencies, institutions, or groups to actively develop age-friendly environments and services.
In terms of “enable”, in addition to advocating ideas, the Health Promotion Administration also provided promotional models and tools, a set of effective kits, as the implementation plan for cities and counties to follow and promote age-friendly cities step by step.
In terms of “mediate”, the Health Promotion Administration provided city and county governments with a central population policy white paper and other ongoing policies related to respect and social inclusion and social participation implemented by relevant departments. It also distributed a small budget to assist cities and counties in integrating resources among bureaus and cross-departments, which brought about the central government’s policies in local cities and counties. Moreover, the Health Promotion Administration also provided expert consultation to help cities and counties solve problems in the process of implementation.
Taiwan’s Active Responses to the Aging Society
With the efforts of the Health Promotion Administration and each city and county, 22 cities and counties across Taiwan have joined in the promotion of age-friendly cities in 2013. Within 3 years, In 2019, it made age-friendliness a main focus, and promoted an age-friendly and dementia-friendly and caring community program. The building of a healthy public policy framework includes environment, services and policies. We need to improve facilities and services to better connect communities, business, charities and religious groups to build community partnerships. In this way, the strength of the community is enhanced so that seniors, those suffering from dementia and chronic illnesses or receiving palliative care are no longer merely looked after, but also able to live independent and autonomous lives. They may even be able to participate in society by being volunteers, sharing their experience and knowledge, or assisting homecare. The ability to continue to make a contribution brings them closer to the target of “less illness, slower aging and living well,” enhancing quality of life well into old age. Taiwan has become the country promoting the most age-friendly cities around the world and allowing over 4,290,000 elders to enjoy policies related to respect and social inclusion and social participation as well as a high-quality golden age.
Policy Implementation and Results
In 2013, the project was extended to all 22 counties and cities in the country. Taiwan is the first country in the world to have all its cities and counties sign agreements to promote age-friendly cities. In 2023, subsidies were provided to all 22 municipalities to create 239 age-friendly communities.
(1) Promoting age-friendly cities from public policies to county and city environments
Municipal and county governments are encouraged to incorporate the promotion of age friendly cities into their administrative policies and establish age-friendly city promotion committees as decision-making centers for program implementation with the mayors/magistrates as chairpersons.
(2) Building an age-friendly supportive environment
To improve the urban environment, reduce barriers and increase social engagement, HPA has subsidized local governments to develop special plans based on the needs of the elderly population.
(3) Increasing the powers of cities and counties to promote age-friendly cities
In order to expand the impact of age-friendly actions, HPA has empowered community health promotional workers to focus on the needs of the elderly, utilize community resources and increase partnership relationships. To increase the capacity of health promotion work, we also guide the promotional programs of counties and cities, and connect local health service networks for both healthy and sub-healthy elderly.
(4) Conducting age-friendly cities selection events
In order to support and encourage local governments to work across different bureaus and departments, HPA conducted the “Healthy City and Age-friendly City Award” selection event. In 2023, a total of 342 works were nominated and 43 agencies were selected for the award.
Through these policies and cross-generation integration, the Health Promotion Administration hopes to allow the elderly to live healthily and age actively in a barrier-free environment!