National Benefits

To plan constructively for an ageing Australia will require profound attitudinal changes and knowledge to guide positive individual and social action. Understanding ageing as a whole-of-person and whole-of-society experience is essential for constructive social action but this cannot be encompassed well within any one disciplinary paradigm. The actions and related research must extend across all aspects of Australian culture and social organisation and throughout government – including mainstream employment, housing, land use, and other programs as well as age-specific retirement income and care programs.

Research on positive aspects of ageing experiences – a perspective that was largely unthinkable until recently – will confront the negative attitudes that can undermine the morale of older people and enable proactive planning in mid-life for old age. Understanding the determinants and variability of outcomes in old age will shed light on investments and interventions that can improve ageing experiences. The aspirations and characteristics of the massive baby boom cohort and their changing relations with the Generations X and Y – in the context of economic and social change – are the fundamental substrate for understanding futures for individual and societal ageing.

Research findings from the Network members over the next five years will contribute to public debate that will encourage positive actions. There remains time to adjust individual’s plans and implement policies and institutional change in anticipation of the full effects of population ageing. The value of social research for facilitating constructive change can be demonstrated by research in the 1980s identifying carers’ needs and subsequent community care developments. Similarly, health status research in the early 1990s, showing the ‘improvability’ of ageing experiences, has informed health promotion policies over the last few years. Further advances in policy and social change can be stimulated and supported by research in our Theme areas in close association with constituency groups.