Working in Organisations... Age Concern...

Human service organisations aspire to address personal and social growth and development in the communities they serve. Their goal is to improve the lives and functioning of individuals within their families and communities. These organisations must be able to respond to increasing service user complexity and diversity within a rapidly changing global environment (Menefee, 1997). An example of such an organisation is Age Concern.

Age Concern is a registered charity that works with and for, older people over the age of 50. The organisation works for the rights and well-being of older people in society. The vision of the organisation is to create an inclusive society where older people are respected, valued, supported and empowered to remain as independent as possible. The organisation has several strategic objectives for the social welfare of older people. The objectives include developing and promoting health and well-being initiatives that help older people live healthy and active lives, challenging discrimination, promoting good practice, providing community involvement and information dissemination.

The Age Concern logo

The Heyday logo

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Furthermore the organisation has set several priorities, which include a quality service, effective influencing and effective infrastructures. Age Concern is a dominant contributor in the social welfare and health care sector for older people in the community it operates in. It is considered as one of the leading deliverers of appropriate, responsive and quality services for the care of older people. It aims to make a positive difference to the lives of older people and make their life experiences more fulfilling and enjoyable, ensuring older people have influence over and are actively involved in local decision-making, policy development and service delivery (www.ageconcern.org.uk).

Age Concern day care centres have implemented day care standards that are in line with National Care Standards. Day centres make an important contribution to community awareness benefiting both, service users and carers...