Delivering an Age-Friendly Health System (AFHS)

The Minister of State for Older People and Housing, Kieran O’Donnell, TD, supported the Health Service Executive has published the Age-Friendly Health System (AFHS), a blueprint intended to transform health and healthcare for older adults in Ireland.

Becoming an AFHS means using the evidence-based 4Ms Framework: ‘What Matters’, ‘Medications’, ‘Mind’ and ‘Mobility’ – to provide efficient, appropriate and high-quality care for every older adult.

The AFHS blueprint sets out an ambitious plan to become a country where the entire health system is designed and delivered through an age-friendly lens, to support longer lives by integrated, person-centred, high-quality care.

The framework has been developed on a collaborative basis across the Department of Health, HSE, and frontline staff, integrating clinical expertise with the preferences and will of older adults.