ERoSH signs up to the Citizens Contract

'Do you want to live a healthier, more vibrant life?' is the question that ERoSH is posing to the half million plus tenants and residents living in sheltered and retirement across the UK, in the build up to its Grey Matters Day on July 21 2006.

To answer that question ERoSH has signed up to the internationally-recognised Citizens Contract, launched by the Alliance for Health & the Future at an international health symposium earlier this year, which has been developed to encourage us to live longer, healthier, more vibrant lives. It aims to get us to recognise that we are personally responsible in ensuring our individual life-long health. This message echoes that of Grey Matters Day which is encouraging all sheltered and retirement housing tenants and residents to be more pro-active about their health, in particular their mental health.

The Citizens Contract is a simple ten-step guide showing how we can prosper at all ages and benefit from our increased life expectancy. This is in response to the growing body of research that suggests chronic illness is not an inevitability of ageing, as has long been believed, but more often the result of poor lifestyle choices.

Michele Hollywood, ERoSH marketing chair and project director of the 20/20 Project, said, "We have an ageing population as well as a growing number of people classified as clinically obese. So, society is beginning to wake up and realise that we have to be more personally responsible for our physical and mental health. The Contract’s ten steps are mostly common sense but older people often suffer from long-term conditions which impact on their ability to enjoy life. This is why ERoSH, which promotes the preventative benefits of living in sheltered housing, has signed up to the Contract and will do all it can to promote it to tenants and residents across the UK."

Dr. Suzanne Wait, Director of Research at the International Longevity Centre (ILC) UK and the Alliance for Health & the Future stated, "Predictions tell us that in 20 years time there will be two million fewer adults aged between 16 and 50 and two million more at 50 and over. Governmental and commercial institutions however are still geared to a society with more younger citizens. To handle this change society must address this growing trend and take proactive moves to empower all citizens regardless of age. Many company and government decisions are based on age – which should have little bearing on decisions – but still unfortunately does." 

The Citizens Contract can be accessed from http://www.healthandfuture.org/inaugural_meeting/citizen.html