The Development of a Method to Activate Vital Communities’ Facilitation of Older People Ageing in Place: A Community-Based Participatory Research Study

Background The ageing population is emerging as a key policy issue for governments and healthcare organisations. Welfare states with ageing populations promote the substitution of expensive forms of care, such as residential care, with less expensive forms, such as ageing in place with additional support by vital communities. There is limited evidence on how to activate communities to facilitate ageing in place. Hence, this study aims to develop a method that can be of assistance for community members, professionals, volunteers, care partners and older people when selecting helpful strategies and interventions to activate a community to facilitate ageing in place. Methods A community-based participatory research methodology was applied to involve parties in an iterative and interactive approach to develop the activation method. Results This study resulted in the creation of the Community Activation Compass, a guide and infographic containing a set of development steps, strategies, interventions and formats that could be of assistance to activate vital communities’ facilitating ageing in place. Conclusion Activating a community could be an intensive, time-limited intervention and is often multi-disciplinary in nature. An inclusive approach seeks to work with all kinds of people and organisations. Still, supporting ageing in place by vital communities may just seem the right thing to do.