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South Australia's Plan for Ageing Well

The South Australian Government’s and community’s vision and priorities for ageing well are outlined in South Australia’s Plan for Ageing Well 2020-2025.

South Australia's Plan for Ageing Well 2020-2025 (PDF 4.4 MB)

The plan addresses the diverse ways we age, sets a forward-looking vision, and encourages contributions from many partners.

Vision

South Australia is a healthy, connected, equitable and sustainable community, which takes a whole of life approach that fosters many years of living well, and supports us to die with dignity, in line with our wishes.

Aims

This plan encourages new ideas and partnerships to improve life as we age. Office for Ageing Well, through this plan and related projects, helps create communities that value older people and the benefits of an ageing population.

Key goals:

Helping people build resilience and resources for all stages of ageing.
Supporting diverse options for living well in later years.
Encouraging communities to work together with older people.
Promoting a positive and realistic view of ageing.
Building resilience in individuals and communities for a good life in later years.

Strategic priorities

South Australia’s Plan for Ageing Well 2020-2025 has three strategic priorities:

Strategic priority 1 – Home and community

Homes and communities enable flexibility and choice, and support us to live how we choose, no matter our age, needs, wants and desires.

Strategic priority 2 – Meaningful connections

A future where everyone has the opportunity, support and encouragement to maintain and develop meaningful connections.

Strategic priority 3 – Navigating change

A future where we all have the capabilities and supports for remaining active participants throughout all life’s transitions.

Enabling factors

To realise the three priorities for ageing well, South Australians need to work together to:

Tackle ageism: South Australia must lead the way in creating an inclusive society, moving beyond ageism.
Grow diversity: South Australia must foster options and choices that reflect the diversity of needs, wants, experiences and aspirations.
Increase accessibility: South Australia must improve access to options, information and supports that enable ageing well.

Supporting conditions

Three supporting conditions underpin the three priorities for ageing well:

Outcomes-driven: Learn through action, align around outcomes, drive change from older peoples lived experiences.
Systems perspective: Develop leaders who act systemically, applying an ageing lens to all policies.
Collaboration — the power of partnerships: Foster conditions for collaboration, recognise the roles multiple stakeholders can play.

Statistics

South Australia has the highest proportion of older people on mainland Australia, with over 700,000 residents aged over 50, making up 39% of the population.

Most people over 65 (95%) live independently at home, while only 25% of those aged 85 and over live in aged care facilities.

Ageing Well Measuring Success Framework

Office for Ageing Well created a framework to measure the success of its plan to support older South Australians. This framework helps understand the impact, build transparency, share good practices, and improve future efforts. It is for anyone involved in ageing well in South Australia to see what success looks like and develop their own tools to measure their impact.

Ageing Well Measuring Success Framework (PDF 1.1 MB)

How South Australia's Plan for Ageing Well 2020–2025 was shaped

In 2018, over 1,500 older South Australians participated in Statewide Conversations to share their views on ageing well. Key themes included better options for staying in homes and communities, meaningful social connections, and navigating change. These insights led to the Future Directions to Support Ageing Well report (PDF 836.4 KB) by the Australian Centre for Social Innovation.

In 2019, further engagement involved 30 thought leaders and over 130 representatives from various sectors. A Stakeholder Response Kit and Public Survey gathered additional feedback, resulting in the Vision for Ageing Well report (PDF 1.6 MB). This report highlights home, social connections, and navigating change as priorities, with a focus on tackling ageism, growing diversity, and increasing accessibility.