‘Respect and social inclusion’ satisfies most in creating age-friendly environment 
A ‘Satisfaction Survey on Age Friendliness of Residential Cities’ commissioned by the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) interviewed 2,144 senior citizens over 60 this year (2014). They were asked a total of 29 questions relating to age friendliness in various aspects and asked to give satisfaction points, where 4 points, the highest, stand for very satisfied, and 1 point, the lowest, for ‘very unsatisfied’. Results showed that the degrees of satisfaction from high to low among the elderly on age-friendly environment in different aspects were: ‘respect and social inclusion’ (2.96 points), ‘community support and health services’ (2.94 points), ‘communication and information’ (2.91 points), ‘transportation’ (2.90 points), ‘civic participation and employment’ (2.85 points), ‘outdoor spaces and buildings’ (2.84 points) and ‘social participation’ (2.83 points) (table attached). The HPA Director-General Chiou Shu-ti said that the aspect of ‘respect and social inclusion’, which won the highest satisfaction ranking in this survey, included three items: the respect for elders in the community they live, the services provided to elders in various agencies, and the friendliness to elders by society. They showed that the efforts from central and local government agencies on the creation of an age-friendly environment in recent years have made some preliminary accomplishments. 

According to Director-General Chiou, a further analysis on individual topics in various aspects showed that both the ‘transport ticket price’ (shown as Q12 in the attached table) in the ‘transportation’ aspect and the ‘speaking volume and speed of service personnel’ (Q26) in the ‘communication and information’ aspect gained the highest satisfaction rate of 3.12 points. Such a result shows that with regard to transportation, which concerns the convenience and friendliness for the elderly to go out, the ticket price is generally approved. And service personnel at the front line that have frequent contacts with the elderly also receive good satisfaction ratings in terms of their speaking volume and speed, showing that the age-friendly policy has been consolidated at the grassroots level and the intention of serving the elderly can be seen everywhere. 

Taiwan enters ‘super-aged society’ in 11 years (2025) 
Ageing is a global trend. The postwar baby boom around the world began to reach 65 from 2011; Taiwan is no exception. With a low fertility rate, Taiwan’s population ages rapidly. In 1993, the population percentage of the elderly in Taiwan reached 7% and Taiwan officially became an ‘ageing society’; in June 2014, the percentage reached 11.8%, or more than 2.74 million senior citizens. It is estimated that by 2018 the percentage will exceed 14%, which makes Taiwan officially an ‘aged society’; and in 2025, Taiwan will become a super-aged society, with an elderly population of 20%, an average of one in every five people older than 65. Director-General Chiou noted, in fact, some cities and counties are now already aged cities and counties; some townships are already aged communities; but our society still lacks awareness of and is not prepared for the problem. It is therefore necessary to speak out to bring society’s attention to this issue. Meanwhile, when speaking of the ageing population, people often propose ‘enhancing long-term care’ as a countermeasure yet ignoring its prevention and health improvement, resulting in fewer resources available to those who are ageing but active. Therefore, the Bureau of Health Promotion (predecessor of the HPA) issued a warning of ‘the approaching of age tsunami’ in 2011, the tenth anniversary of its formation (July 2001) and the year before it was expected to become the HPA, urging and committing itself to further strengthening the tasks of health promotion and disease prevention! 

Promoting age-friendliness, the HPA passes torches to cities and counties 
Disease prevention and control is the main task of a traditional health system in maintaining public health, a very core public health service. However, the time that relies on the public health system alone to care for elderly health has passed. Director-General Chiou recalled having seen the publication ‘Global Age-Friendly Cities: A Guide’ by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2009, and started to promote this concept in workshops and other occasions. After joining government services, in response to the advent of the aged society and under the guidelines of the country’s population policy, she promoted the national age-friendly program. Starting from 2010, the eight aspects of age-friendly cities proposed by the WHO were adopted, including: comfort living (housing), connectivity (communication and information), smooth traveling (transportation), obstacle free (outdoor spaces and buildings), agelessness (civic participation and employment), friendliness to the elderly (social participation), health (community support and health services), and respect for the elderly (respect and social inclusion), to encourage domestic cities and counties to design and plan for their different needs and priorities, and promote various ‘active ageing’ measures. By 2013, all 22 cities and counties in Taiwan have been promoting age-friendly cities and signed the Dublin Declaration to commit to their promotion, and Taiwan became the only country in the world that achieved full coverage. 

Director-General Chiou admitted in earnest that the HPA’s promotion of age-friendly cities initially met some skepticism. But the facts proved that its promotion provided counties and cities with a set of policy tools, and the eight-aspect checklist was comprehensive and detailed. Following the promoting procedures and framework provided by the HPA, counties and cities can also review their policies on the extent of age friendliness. The plan is currently very popular among leaders of counties and cities, as ‘it will be remembered in the hearts of senior citizens if well implemented.’ She stressed, the promotion of the age-friendly city is a full-dimensional social construction and resource mobilization; it specifically achieves ‘health in all policies’, as advocated by the WHO. 

To assure the implementation of age-friendly cities in every corner of Taiwan, the HPA plays a key role in carrying out the three main functions initiated by the central government – to ‘advocate’, ‘enable’ and ‘mediate’, leading cities and counties to move toward the age-friendly city program. In terms of ‘advocating’, the ‘age-friendly city’ policy is controlled by the central government and implemented at the local level, with the public sector taking the lead to guide other public and private agencies, organizations or groups to actively create age-friendly spaces and services. For the ‘enabling’ function, apart from promoting the concept, the HPA also provides modules and tools, which constitute a whole set of effective execution plans, for the promoting cities and counties to follow step by step. With regard to ‘mediating’, the HPA applies small-amount administration operating funds to help cities and counties with the integration of resources across bureaus, provides lists of counseling experts to help them resolve difficulties during the process, and assists them in international exchanges and the sharing of promotion experiences. In order to effectively motivate various departments to be involved in the age-friendly city project, the heads of the 22 cities and counties must sign the letter of intent in person to promote the age-friendly city project before their cities and counties can apply for the HPA grants. 

A loving policy to assure peace of mind in health 
Director-General Chiou noted that for the past few years of promoting age-friendly cities, a social atmosphere of respecting and admiring, or even welcoming senior citizens was gradually felt. With the platform of promoting age-friendly cities, counties and cities were able to integrate central policies related to elderly health and well-being at the local level for implementation, applying methods closer to senior citizens’ needs, using creative practices, and attracting private sectors to involve. 

The HPA has also collected the achievements in the eight major aspects of promoting the age-friendly city by various cities and counties, compiling them into a book to share with the public. Through life stories of the elderly everywhere recorded in the book, the HPA again appeals to the public that a friendly environment is what’s required to encourage senior members of the society to venture out boldly. 

The senior citizens recorded in the new book were invited to attend the press conference and tell their stories, an intention to remind everyone that only in an environment and under a policy of love and care can they live with happiness and without restrictions, and develop their second half of life as ‘active elders’, to live, learn and be active till the end.