Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health
  • Home
    • Mission and vision
    • Need and opportunity
  • About
    • Our people
    • Friends and Partners
    • Join us
  • Learn
    • TOOLS >
      • Curated Research
    • Facts and Figures
    • What is mental health?
    • How the city affects mental health
    • How mental health affects the city
    • How urban design can impact mental health
    • Mind the GAPS Framework
    • How to measure mental health
    • Courses
  • Cities
  • Journal
    • Edition 1
    • Edition 2
    • Edition 3
    • Edition 4
    • Edition 5
    • Edition 6
    • Edition 7
    • Edition 8
    • Edition 9
  • FORUM
    • Pandemic Posts (Archive)
  • Events
    • PRESS EVENTS
    • Washington DC Dialogue
    • London Dialogue
    • Tokyo Dialogue
    • Hong Kong Dialogue
    • Restorative Cities Event
  • Contact
  • Home
    • Mission and vision
    • Need and opportunity
  • About
    • Our people
    • Friends and Partners
    • Join us
  • Learn
    • TOOLS >
      • Curated Research
    • Facts and Figures
    • What is mental health?
    • How the city affects mental health
    • How mental health affects the city
    • How urban design can impact mental health
    • Mind the GAPS Framework
    • How to measure mental health
    • Courses
  • Cities
  • Journal
    • Edition 1
    • Edition 2
    • Edition 3
    • Edition 4
    • Edition 5
    • Edition 6
    • Edition 7
    • Edition 8
    • Edition 9
  • FORUM
    • Pandemic Posts (Archive)
  • Events
    • PRESS EVENTS
    • Washington DC Dialogue
    • London Dialogue
    • Tokyo Dialogue
    • Hong Kong Dialogue
    • Restorative Cities Event
  • Contact

SANITY AND URBANITY

If you are an academic, urban designer, planner, health professional or citymaker, ​and would like to submit  an entry, please contact us:  ENTRY PITCH

On International Day of Older Persons, what is the role of urban design?

10/1/2017

 
Today, October 1st, is International Day of Older Persons. This year the theme is enabling and expanding the contributions of older people in their families, communities and societies at large. The World Health Organization recognizes that a key component of achieving this is through the creation of age-friendly environments:
Age-friendly environments foster health and well-being and the participation of people as they age. They are accessible, equitable , inclusive, safe and secure, and supportive. They promote health and prevent or delay the onset of disease and functional decline. They provide people-centered services and support to enable recovery or to compensate for the loss of function so that people can continue to do the things that are important to them - WHO
Picture
Urban design for ageing populations?

From the perspective of architects, planners and other city designers, age-friendly environments contribute to good mental wellbeing by enabling older people to access nature, meet friends, get exercise, conduct useful tasks, and participate and contribute to their communities. By enabling these actions, good design can enable participation in the community for people of different abilities, improving quality of life, and reducing the risk of mental health problems like loneliness and depression, including for people with dementia.

Mind the GAPS

Urban designers and planners can particularly contribute by designing high quality spaces by 'Minding the GAPS':
  • Green spaces: Provide access to well-maintained natural surroundings that older people can enjoy; these should include seating, public toilet facilities, and protection from the weather.
  • Active spaces: Enable physical activity, particularly walking, through: barrier-free design, appropriate seating, toilet facilities, crossings that permit enough time for  all pedestrians to cross the road, and pavements that are wide and even with low curbs and wheelchair access points, and that are free of hazards.
  • Pro-social spaces: Encourage positive, natural social interactions, including in multi-purpose inter-generational spaces, and in settings that facilitate affordable activities.
  • Safe spaces: Are safe in terms of crime, traffic, falls, and wayfinding. A symptom of dementia is disorientation, so environments should be easy to navigate, e.g. make use of clear landmarks, clear signs at eye level at key decision points.
  • Services: A range of services (shops, healthcare, library, banks, cafes, post offices, social options, etc) should be clustered near where older people live, and be easily accessible to enable people to conduct their activities of daily living. Transport should also be accessible.

Read more: Download the World Health Organization Global Age-Friendly Cities Guide (2007) and check out Wisconsin's example of a Dementia-Friendly Communities toolkit.

Join: Is your city an age-friendly city? Join the World Health Organization's network.

Comments are closed.

    Sanity and Urbanity
    FORUM

    Reading, seeing, and thinking urban design to improve mental health. 

    Categories:

    All
    Acoustics
    Aggression
    Anger
    Catharsis
    Circadian Rhythms
    Community
    Community Mental Health
    E-Bikes
    Events
    Greening
    Green Space
    Healthy City Design
    High-Rise
    Homeless
    Journal
    Mental Health
    Mobility
    Nature
    Noise
    Nostalgia
    Op Eds
    Out And About
    People
    Planetary Health
    Policy
    Projects
    Prosocial
    Public Parks
    Research
    Resilience
    Safety
    Sleep
    Sustainability
    Sustainable Development
    Transport
    Traumascapes
    Urban Planning
    Well-Being
    Women

    RSS Feed

© 2025 - UDMH