How can societal actors collaborate to promote outdoor activities for the elderly?

The theme of this year's Think Tank for Outdoor Life was knowledge about outdoor life. Kristin Godtman Kling and Rosemarie Ankre presented "How societal actors can collaborate to promote outdoor activities and outdoor life for the elderly: Some findings from the research". The audience was people from municipalities, regions, county administrative boards and other authorities, Swedish Outdoor Life, various outdoor organizations and private actors. Among other things, Henrik Petré, who is part of the project's reference group, was on site as an investigator at Härnösand municipality.

Kristin initially talked about how the public, private and voluntary sectors play a significant role when it comes to older people's outdoor activities. Part of the project is to study the opportunities and challenges that exist for collaboration between these sectors. An important part is how the sectors can encourage participation and prevent older adults from quitting outdoor activities.

Rosemarie then highlighted the elderly people's perspectives and experiences, based on three focus groups conducted in Härnösand and Östersund municipalities. The focus groups consisted of elderly people in good physical shape and older people in need of assistive devices such as walkers or poles. It is clear that nature has a significant impact on the well-being, physical health and social relationships of the elderly, but also that unequal ageing – socio-economic conditions, origin and gender, needs to be critically discussed in planning and management in connection with accessible nature and outdoor activities. Another aspect is the value of different kinds of nature; The importance of the city park was clear to the elderly with assistive devices. Within each sector, there is therefore a need to reflect on definitions and discuss the concept of nature; its meaning and for whom and where.

Digital recordings of these presentations will be available on the project's website in the future.

Here you can take part of the presentation "How societal actors can collaborate to promote outdoor activities and outdoor life for the elderly - Some highlights from ongoing research"