Navigating access to occupational activities and health and social services in older age: co-creation of an online resource for older people and their carers

Older people and carers experience barriers in access to health and social services. Involving older people in designing tools and technologies that are intended for them can support adoption and uptake by ensuring that solutions are grounded in their lived experiences, needs and preferences. This paper describes the process of identifying community priorities and co-creating an online toolkit to support older people and families navigating service options in a diverse community of South Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Co-creation activities included a preliminary research workshop with 11 participants (older people and carers) to identify community priorities, four wānanga (working group) sessions with 10 interest-holders and topical experts, initial prototype development and review, and toolkit formation and rollout. The resultant online toolkit, He Kete Āwhina, is a website providing locally relevant information to older people and carers about health, social and cultural services available to them. Future aims include useability testing and a full evaluation of the toolkit. Despite challenges and resources required, our co-creation approach provided vital information to ensure the design of this toolkit was responsive to the needs and preferences of the intended recipients.