Principles of age-friendly social policy

The FHNW University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland documents and analyses the living situations, quality of life, and life satisfaction of elderly and ageing people as well as those of their relatives, in their own social and spatial environment, in order to develop and establish socially acceptable, future-proof concepts for age-appropriate housing in cooperation with practitioners.

The foundation of this work is the Ageing Survey Project, which aims to record both the objectively experienced and subjectively evaluated living conditions and living situations of elderly and ageing people as well as those of their relatives. This will provide reliable data for reporting on age-related issues and social issues that is focused on quality of life and life satisfaction, thus laying the essential foundation for responsible planning and decision-making by public authorities and institutions.

Furthermore, the demographic change and the socio-spatial and living-situation-specific dimensions of this change will be depicted in a digital ageing atlas by way of a map of the ageing society, presenting the issue in an interactive way that can be easily understood.

The focus is on the following topics:

• Social relationships and social contacts
• Social environments, forms of housing and home environments
• Forms of mobility and participation
• Care structures and culture of care
• Living, origins and identity