March madness: Dr Bill’s visit; HousingLin conference; SCIE workshop; and more!

They say time flies when you’re having fun, and March has certainly flown by for team Evermore.

It’s been a full-on month for Evermore founder, Sara McKee, whose packed schedule has seen her traverse the country several times! Just like Tigger, Sara’s been bouncing around sharing her energy and endless enthusiasm for challenging convention and doing things differently so more older people can live a later life in full colour.

Bill at Buccleuch Lodge

A highlight of the month has been a visit by Evermore’s Global Chair, Dr Bill Thomas.  Bill came over to meet the folks at Buccleuch Lodge at Withington Community Hospital where we are transforming a ward into a small household. Bill shared his story, explained the motivation for the small household approach, and provided words of encouragement and inspiration.

“Obstacles are your path. Have a strong belief in what you’re doing and you can drive forward and repel hostilities! Small House is the right thing.” Dr Bill Thomas

We also hosted a roundtable with colleagues from across Greater Manchester where we challenged participants to think about older people as “us not them”. Ageism is still having a huge impact on how services are designed and delivered, and we all need to consider how society’s ingrained views on ageing impact how we respond to health and social care challenges.

Towards the end of Bill’s visit, Sara and Bill also took to the stage at HousingLin’s annual conference, ‘An IdeasFest: A Fresh Look at Homes for All Ages’. You can read Bill’s conference blog for HousingLin by clicking here – https://www.housinglin.org.uk/blogs/Ageing-on-your-own-terms/.

Once Sara bid Bill adieu, she was in Liverpool to develop our ideas for a cooperative approach to social care before heading to London. Here, she took part in an expert workshop, The 100-year life: the role of housing, design and planning, with SCIE, the Centre for Ageing Better and the Design Council. It focussed on how a design-led approach to where we live – our homes and the wider built environment – can help to prepare for the Grand Challenge of Ageing, and the development of the Green Paper on Care for Older People.  We’re looking forward to seeing the output and discussing how we can move the actions forward.

In amongst all of this, we’ve also been reviewing the Industrial Strategy’s Ageing Society Grand Challenge,  designing a virtual health and social care campus, working on nominations for the Greater Manchester Health & Care Champions,  plus taking part in Town Centre challenges for Wigan, Bolton and Stockport. It’s certainly been a mad March but we wouldn’t have it any other way.

And to top it off, we’re now on Soundcloud where we’ll be posting regular audio content about issues in housing, health and social care. Called Pockets of Brilliance, the podcast will explore new ideas, share our own thoughts and challenges, and include conversations with collaborators about their own Pockets of Brilliance.  Our first two episodes are below. Please get in touch to let us know if there’s a topic you’d like us to explore.

Finally, as March draws to a close, we’d like to wish you and your loved ones a safe and happy Easter.

Love from the Evermore tribe

ps – Happy birthday to Sara, our fearless and inspirational leader