Abstract
Place-based initiatives offer both opportunities and challenges for advancing healthy ageing in rural contexts, where social connection, engagement, and wellbeing can be shaped by complex and even contradictory community dynamics. Focusing on the implementation and evaluation of the Healthy Ageing Hub project in Victoria, Australia, this paper examines how collaborative, community-led approaches might create sustainable legacies and foster social connection. The Hub approach reveals how rurality produces distinctive patterns of social engagement shaped by both the strength and exclusivity of existing community networks. The rural context provided both advantages, such as direct influence and strong local relationships, and challenges, including the complexities of close-knit social dynamics. Findings revealed that while the Hub enhanced trust, communication, and collaboration among local organisations, it is still challenging to address the needs of some cohorts. The Hub project shows the importance of flexible, inclusive strategies tailored to rural contexts, emphasising the role of place-based, community-led models in supporting healthy ageing. The lessons learned offer practical insights for other rural communities seeking to build connected and inclusive environments for older adults. Ultimately, we argue for a nuanced approach to place-based program design that is attentive to hidden dynamics of power, belonging, and marginalisation within rural communities, in order to support more equitable and effective models of healthy ageing.
Presenters
Sean MacDermottAssociate Professor / Director: John Richards Centre for Rural Ageing Research, La Trobe University Rural Health School (LRHS), La Trobe University, Australia, Victoria, Australia
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Social and Cultural Perspectives on Aging
KEYWORDS
Healthy ageing, Place-based, Rural, Community, Hub
