Office for Ageing Well has engaged local agency Think Human to gather views from around the state, as it looks to rejuvenate its Elder Abuse Prevention campaign in 2022 and beyond.

The annual Stop Elder Abuse community awareness campaign has been run for seven years – find out more here: www.sahealth.sa.gov.au/stopelderabuse.

The survey of South Australians seeks to understand their views of growing older and to test draft messages, drawn from conversations with older people throughout 2021.

People of all ages are invited to complete the online survey here to share their views on how the Elder Abuse Prevention campaign can capture people’s attention and make them think about how older people are treated in South Australia.

The survey is open until Tuesday 1 March 2022.

Following the survey there will be a series of focus groups to review survey results and propose the final messaging and imagery to shape this important annual campaign.

If you would like to find out more about how to get involved in the focus groups, please contact Melanie at melanie@thinkhuman.com.au or phone 0466 544 098.

At the same time, Think Human and Office for Ageing Well are developing a toolkit to guide local and state government, the not-for-profit sector, and local media to shape age positive communications and resources that challenge ageist stereotypes.

A group of older people has co-designed draft templates and tools to tackle ageism in communication, informed by interviews with government and non-profit operational staff and communications teams.

Think Human is seeking further input from older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and culturally and linguistically diverse community members to test and refine the new tools and templates.

A focus group of older people will help to co-design a specific resource to support them to tackle ageism when they see it.

If you are an older person who would like to participate in this focus group, and particularly if you identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander or culturally and linguistically diverse, please get in touch with Lyn at lyn@thinkhuman.com.au or phone 0419 526 666.

If you work in a local or state government agency, not for profit, or media organisation and would like to help design the final toolkit so that it meets your needs, please also contact lyn@thinkhuman.com.au to find out more.

The Age Positive Communication Toolkit project is supported by Office for Ageing Well, SA Health through a strategic grant to Think Human.

Image caption: Some of the older people involved in stage one co-designing the toolkit resources with the Think Human team.