Indicator 19: National and sector plans

The Positive Ageing Strategy is to provide a framework for developing and understanding policy with implications for older people. The strategy's 10 goals are to guide central and local government policies and programmes aimed at improving opportunities for older people to participate in their communities in ways they choose.^[1]

Figure 1 lists the strategy’s 10 goals, the indicators used to monitor progress towards them, and shows how they link to the Madrid indicators. The indicators for each goal variously define older people as being 50+, 60+, and 65+, and some data is reported for people aged 15+.

The last action plan to implement the Positive Ageing Strategy expired in 2010. From 2010, actions plans were replaced by initiatives and online reporting about them.

The previous Minister for Senior Citizens identified three priority areas that are linked to one or more of the Positive Ageing Strategy’s goals.^[2]

Reporting on the Strategy

The Indicators Report 2007^[3] provided the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) with a set of indicators to assess trends in outcomes for older people. The then Minister for Senior Citizens directed MSD to use the indicators to assess trends in outcomes for older people over time and identify priorities for future actions to promote positive ageing. Before then, data for each indicator had been collected and reported, but had not been used to assess whether actions had led to better outcomes for older people.

Up to 2010, annual reports on the Strategy were published.^[4] Since then:

• MSD has published reports against each of the indicators online; and
• a three-yearly cycle for reporting on the Strategy was introduced.

Older people living in rural communities are not disadvantaged when accessing services

The only Positive Ageing Strategy indicator that does not link easily to the Madrid indicators is goal 7, which deals with potential disadvantage because people live in rural areas. Because it will not be covered elsewhere, we report on the indicator for goal 7 here.

MSD reports that the kind of data needed to create an indicator of rural disadvantage is not available:

New Zealand is a long, narrow country with a relatively small population of 4.4 million. Around 86 percent of the usually-resident population lives in urban areas. Inevitably, there are challenges in providing similar access to services for the remaining 14 percent who live in rural areas. Service delivery patterns have changed over time and this has led to the reduction in the number of services and facilities located in many communities. While developments such as call centres provide immediate access to information, rural people often need to travel greater distances to access other services and amenities.^[5]

To improve the status of older people.  

1. the proportion of older people in households with after-housing-costs incomes below a low-income threshold
2. the proportion of older people experiencing material hardship as measured more directly using the Economic Living Standards Index (ELSI)

1. The proportion of people aged 15 years and over reporting having a usual health care practitioner.
2. The proportion of people aged 15 years and over whose usual health practitioner is a general practitioner (GP).
3. The proportion of people aged 15 years and over who saw a GP in the last 12 months
4. The proportion of people aged 15 years and over who did not see a GP in the last 12 months because of cost.
5. The proportion of people aged 15 years and over who did not collect prescriptions in the past 12 months because of cost.

The proportion of people aged 60 years and over who:

• had been victims of one or more incidents of criminal offending;
• perceived a neighbourhood crime problem, a change in neighbourhood crime levels;
• felt unsafe walking alone in their neighbourhood after dark; and
• had personal worries about their risk of victimisation.

An adequate measure is not available. The indicators below are a partial measure for Māori only.

1. The proportion of older Māori reporting having a usual health care practitioner, and whose usual health practitioner is a general practitioner (GP).
2. The proportion of older Māori who saw a GP in the last 12 months those who had an unmet need for a GP and those who had uncollected prescriptions in the past 12 months.
3. The proportion of older Māori who usually go to a Māori primary health care provider first when feeling unwell or injured.