Whose Responsibility? Challenges to Creating an Age-Friendly Victoria in the Wider Australian Policy Context

Abstract

The authors present Australia as another critical situation. Even if two cities were initially members of the WHO original project in 2007, the authors examine the factors which limited the implementation of AFCC in the State of Victoria, even with the initial provision of funds to support relevant policy and service reform. They demonstrate how a lack of vision and coherence within top-down approaches can inhibit the development of "bottom-up", localized age-friendly initiatives. While the discourse of 'active aging' has once been promoted in the nation through expert voices, intake of AFCC has failed due to a "lack of vision" at the different levels of government; terms such as "active aging" or "age-friendly" are adapted to existing programs with little place for their innovative dimension; the authors also insist on the "lack of multi-sectorial partnerships", would it be between the different departments of government, or through little attention to the consultation of older people processes. In Victoria, Council on the Aging (COTA), the advocacy organization for older people, has thus implemented only limited “bottom-up” peer-education model with its volunteers "reaching out to groups of older people across the state to inform them about the AFCC model." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)