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SCOTTISH OLDER PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY TUESDAY, 25 OCTOBER, 2011.
This year’s ‘Scottish Older People’s Assembly (SOPA) takes place in the Edinburgh International Conference Centre in Edinburgh on Tuesday, 25 October. 2011. The representatives of older people across Scotland meet with the Government Minister for older people three or four times a year to air the concerns of older people and the annual Assembly highlights the issues of greatest concern to older people in Scotland. This full day Government-backed event will this year focus on: active aging, care and support (and the link to the Scottish Government’s agenda for “Reshaping Care for Older People); dementia services and personal finance.
Steve Webb (UK Government Pensions Minister) will speak at the conference and answer questions from the audience. Nicola Sturgeon (Deputy First Minister with responsibility for Health and Well-being and for Older People) will also address the Assembly. As there are only 160 places for conference delegates the Steering Group felt that this year’s event should be opened up the widest possible audience through Video-Conferencing and the use of You Tube. This should also serve to silence those who say that older people do not embrace technology.
There are three sites for the Video-link to the conference and the management committee of HSCN is pleased to say that one of those is in Inverness; the others are in Dumfries and Hamburg in Germany – we want to know how the challenges of ageing are addressed in other countries. There will be brief presentations from individuals from each of these sites addressing the conference themes from a local perspective.
We would, therefore, like to invite older people from across the Highlands to join us on TUESDAY, 25th OCTOBER, 2011 at the Highland Council Headquarters Chamber between 9.30 a.m. and 4 p.m. (Lunch and refreshments provided). The Assembly (in Edinburgh) will be facilitated by Gary Robertson (BBC Radio Scotland) and we also expect wide media coverage in Edinburgh and in Inverness. This is our opportunity to get our messages across to those in Government who make key decisions about our future. This is not someone else’s business, it’s everybody’s business and because of this you might like to persuade friends, neighbours family members from teenage to old age to join you at the Conference in Inverness. Failing that, invite them to share the Conference on You Tube with you.
Places for the conference in Inverness can be booked by contacting
Molly Doyle, 33 MacColl Road, Cannich, IV4 7LP. Tel. 01456 415438
Let’s show our fellow citizens that life in remote areas does not mean disinterested!
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