73 Challenges in Developing an Age-friendly County Programme in Ireland: Translating Global WHO Policy into Local Practice

Background Developing age-friendly communities is a significant global policy issue. The WHO (2007) age-friendly cities and communities initiative has had a significant influence on the development of Ireland’s Age-Friendly Programme. With research on such programmes still at an early stage, this paper critically examines the utilisation of the WHO age-friendly planning framework in an Irish context. It explores older adults’ experience of living in two towns in an ‘age-friendly’ county and, in parallel, examines stakeholders’ perspectives on the development of the county’s age-friendly programme. This multi-perspectival approach facilitates an assessment of how the age-friendly county programme addresses older residents’ needs, and illustrates how the WHO conceptual and planning framework has worked in an Irish context. Methods The paper reports on a study which employed a mixed-method, qualitative case-study research design, using a constructivist grounded theory approach to explore the lived experience of older adults, and a case-study framework for the stakeholder perspective. Results The research identifies salient social and cultural dimensions of the day-to-day lived experience of older people which, although they impact on the age-friendliness of the places in which they live, are neglected in the WHO framework. It also identifies a unique combination of economic, political, cultural, and organisational factors which have impacted on age-friendly programme development in Ireland. Conclusion In critically analysing use of the WHO age-friendly model, the paper suggests ways in which the model can be modified to better accommodate the diverse experience of older adults not only in Ireland, but also in other geographic and cultural contexts.