[Improving Structures for Healthy and Self-Determined Ageing in an Urban District]

Abstract

Between 2007 and 2010 the Institut für Gerontologische Forschung e.V. investigated the "Primary Prevention Effects of the Märkisches Viertel Network" in the Berlin district "Märkisches Viertel". The study integrates, amongst others, various participatory methods to investigate the health promotion effects of the volunteer Märkisches Viertel Network, an organisation that brings together different local actors working to assist and encourage older people to live independent lives. Sustained active collaboration by a heterogeneous mixture of actors in a spatially defined quarter, engagement by the local housing association, and increasing acknowledgement of and participation by older residents were identified as success factors for a change in local structures.