Each ‘Age Friendly South Lanarkshire’ information day focuses on a particular council area, bringing together and enabling access to relevant services, partner groups and organisations under one roof. 

The events are part of the wider strategy which recently saw South Lanarkshire become the first local authority in Scotland to become an *Age-Friendly Community, joining a network of communities – led by the World Health Organisation (WHO) - working together to create a great place to grow older. 

The most recent information day, held last month in Rutherglen, was a successful follow-up to April’s event in Clydesdale with both creating a space where older people from a range of clubs and groups could meet and chat informally with representatives of council services such as the Seniors Together team, Money Matters, Trading Standards, and Care & Repair.

They were joined by an array of groups from the NHS, South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture (SLLC), voluntary, private sector and charity organisations.

Christine Calder, Project Manager of Seniors Together, which is run by South Lanarkshire Council, explained: “We are halfway through this specific event calendar for the year, and each of the open days we’ve held so far has been well attended. 

“There have been lots of thought-provoking questions around things like scams and bogus callers, health and wellbeing, good home options and age-friendly activities, to name just a few, and it has reminded us of the importance of creating local and collective access to the council services, health, leisure, voluntary and advice services that can provide the answers.

“We are grateful to all who took the time to come along and meet with the many representatives there on the day, and who also took advantage of health checks being offered by our colleagues in SLLC. I hope everyone involved found the events to be as useful and productive as we did, as we begin our journey as an Age Friendly Community.” 

Two further events are scheduled for November and March, with full details available here on the View. 

*Creating an Age-Friendly Community includes ideas such as ‘liveable neighbourhoods’ – limiting traffic and creating more spaces for neighbours to sit and children to play, and ‘fifteen-minute neighbourhoods’ – ensuring residents can access daily needs within a safe short walk, in line with WHO’s identified features of age-friendly cities.