The O4O: Older people for older people project

Professor Jane Farmer, Chair of Rural Health Policy & Management, UHI Millennium Institute, Centre for Rural Health

This paper presents the O4O: older people for older people project.  O4O aims to establish social organisations to address basic level service provision for older people, mainly in remote and rural communities, in European Northern Periphery regions.

There are increasing proportions of older people in the European population.  Peripheral regions including the Northern Periphery have a higher percentage of older people compared with central, urban regions.  Service provision is challenged by finding and keeping a range of skilled staff and high costs of travel in remote areas.  Research in a previous EU NPP project showed that older people already make substantial social contributions for each other in rural areas.  This project sees older people as assets who can help to keep communities sustained and vibrant by providing a range of basic helping services that contribute to maintaining other older people living independently in their communities for as long as possible. O4O seeks to support communities in developing types of social organisation that suit them; for example, volunteering organisations, timebanks, co-operatives or social enterprises. A key goal is facilitating development using resources that already exist within communities, related networks and agencies. 

O4O seeks to: maintain people living independently in their communities for as long as possible; view older people as a positive force; encourage intergenerational working.  Its specific goals are as follows:

• to go through a process of supporting communities in establishing social organisations to provide a range of basic services to help keep older people living independently in their communities; 
• to engage community members, including older people themselves, in the process of planning, developing and running social organisations;
• to use findings to feed into developing a toolkit that can be used by other communities;
• to evaluate the impact of O4Os on the wellbeing of community members, community social and economic capacity, help-giving behaviour and costs to public service institutions.

O4O is a 3 year project funded by the European Union Northern Periphery Programme with support from organisations including the Scottish Government, Highlands & Islands Enterprise and the Highland Council.  O4O commenced in Summer 2008 and will run for 3 years.  UHI Millennium Institute in Inverness is the Lead Partner. Other partners are Lulea (Sweden), North Karelia (Finland), Northern Ireland, Dumfries & Galloway and Kainuu (Finland).  Partners will exchange experiences, models and knowledge in the project