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Ageing Well

Local government has a vital role in leading and facilitating communities where people of all ages, regardless of ability or life stage, can live a quality life. Councils deliver, plan and lead an array of activities, supports and services for older adults to ensure communities can age in place.

We work with councils, the Victorian and Australian Governments and our partners to strengthen approaches to promoting the health and wellbeing of older Victorians. This includes preventative health and wellbeing work and community aged care services. We take a systems approach to identifying opportunities for impact to improve the lives of older Victorians.

Councils' role in supporting people to age well is evolving, with significant reforms to the national aged care system seeing some councils cease direct service delivery. We’re supporting the sector to navigate these changes and ensure older people have access to the support and services they need, where they need them.

Positive Ageing

Ensuring communities can age well is a central tenant of councils’ role in promoting the health and well-being of their communities. We support councils to pursue and implement activities and initiatives that respond to the needs of their communities, informed by evidence and leading practice.

Community Care

Around half of Victoria’s councils deliver federally funded aged care services directly to clients. All councils, with the MAV, continue their role in advocating for strong, equitable and sustainable community aged care services across municipalities, whether they deliver services directly or not.

Our work

Current Priorities

  • National aged care reforms
  • Strengthening the wellbeing of Senior Victorians
  • Addressing ageism
  • Social connectedness and inclusion

Local Government Ageing Well Networks

The MAV currently convenes two statewide networks for council staff working to support older Victorians. These are the Positive Ageing Network and the Community Care Network.

The Positive Ageing Network meets quarterly and features presentations from sector leaders, academics, government departments and more.

The Community Care Network meets every two months and primarily focuses on issues relating to the delivery of community care services, including national aged care reforms, with opportunities to engage directly with government departments.

To promote cross sector collaboration, we also facilitate Communities of Practice for council’s seeking an opportunity to explore emerging or high-priority areas of interest.

Representing councils and their older communities

We represent Victorian councils and advocate for their interests across several government and research advisory committees and groups.

  • Victorian Community Care Advisory Committee
  • Victorian Social Prescribing Collaborative
  • Primary and Community Health Network
  • People at Higher Risk from Fire Reference Group
  • Older Road User Stakeholder Reference Group
  • Building Rural Age-friendly Health Literacy Advisory Group
  • Victoria Police Seniors Portfolio Reference Group
  • The National Ageing Research Institute (NARI) ENJOY MAP for HEALTH Advisory Group.

Supporting innovation & sector leadership

Councils’ role supporting older adults is changing and we’re supporting them to navigate this evolution and redefine their role in ageing well.

The MAV is a signatory to the Victorian Age-Friendly Declaration, which provides a commitment for State and local government to work together to create age-friendly communities. Forty-six councils have also signed the declaration.

Strategic Partnerships

We work closely with councils, the Victorian Department of Health, the Department of Fairness, Families and Housing, the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care, COTA Victoria and more to progress better outcomes for older Victorians.

Submissions and briefs

On behalf of the local government sector, we prepare submissions and briefs on a range of issues relating to ageing well.

Our public submissions are available on the MAV submissions page.

Resources

Age-Friendly Cities and Communities Information Kit for Local Government

Developed by COTAVic (Council of the Ageing) and the MAV, with funding from the RACV, the Age friendly cities and communities information kit for local government (PDF - 15.63MB) supports local government to continue the age-friendly momentum and in particular to support councillors and senior management to lead and activate a whole-of-council response.

You can read more about Age-Friendly Cities and Communities initiatives.

End of Life Project

The MAV received state government funding in 2016 for a three year project with the La Trobe University Palliative Care Unit.

The Victorian Councils: Supporting Communities Around End of Life Project explored local government's role in end of life and a wide range of resources were developed to assist councils in their work.

Contact us

To learn more about our ageing well work, please contact the MAV Ageing and Aged Services Team.