Age Concern Cymru

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Wales Council on Ageing - registered charity 505071

Older Minority Ethnic People (OME)

Minority ethnic groups are the fastest ageing groups within the population; by 2030, it is projected that the minority ethnic elder population will have increased tenfold from 175,000 to 1.7 million (Age Concern 2004). Despite this demographic change, very few service providers are prepared for the change. Most services for older people are still ‘one size fits all’ and fail to recognise the rich heterogeneity of the older population, for example, funeral payments are available from the Social Fund for those on Pension Credit but are not available for those who wish to be buried in their country of origin.

Over the years, Age Concern Cymru has developed a number of consultation and participation initiatives to involve older people in the organisation and in the decisions that affect their lives. One of these initiatives is the EngAGE project which aims to improve the involvement of older people in their local communities.

The EngAGE project findings and other recent research reports found that older ethnic minority people have difficulty accessing health and social care services because their specific cultural, religious, dietary and language needs are not met.

As there are no current projects or initiatives working throughout Wales and across sectors supporting the development of organisations to better meet the needs of minority ethnic older people, Age Concern Cymru established a network of national and local agencies working with minority ethnic people who were interested in developing work to support older people, their families and carers from minority ethnic groups. The Minority Ethnic Older People’s Network project is comprised of organisations representing and working for several different ethnic groups.