News

Yesterday

New AI assistant for fast, easy problem reporting

Aucklanders can now use an AI-powered virtual assistant to safely report problems, including graffiti, roaming dogs and party noise.

Every day, Aucklanders help keep our communities safe, neighbourly and tidy by reporting problems to the council. This has just got easier with the launch of a new, purpose-built virtual assistant called Ask Auckland Council.

You can use it to report graffiti, illegal dumping, roaming dogs, missed bin collections, and party/people noise, as well as quickly find information for reporting other problems.

More problem categories will be added over the coming months. Meanwhile, the council is working on speeding up internal processes so that reported problems can get fixed faster.

Ask Auckland Council is an AI assistant which you can access on your smartphone, computer, tablet or any device via a web browser. Find the link on the main Report a problem page on the Auckland Council website or access the assistant directly.

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14 Apr

Homelessness among older people at crisis levels, Christchurch Methodist Mission says

The Christchurch Methodist Mission is warning that homelessness among older people is at crisis levels and that the situation is rapidly worsening.

The scale of the problem was laid bare during the launch of the charity's cross-party Doors to Dignity campaign at Parliament on Tuesday night.

The mission said the housing situation for older New Zealanders had deteriorated significantly over the past five years.

Its executive director Jilll Hawkey said that, anecdotally, the number of older people rough sleeping was on the rise.

"We see it from our housing outreach teams, we've in recent weeks found a couple of women in their eighties who have been homeless and two men last week in their sevenites who are homeless," she said.

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13 Apr

New circus skills class for over 60s 'like play for adults'

A circus skills class specifically for those aged over 60 is on offer at Christchurch City Council's new recreation and sports facility, Parakiore.

The classes are offered by Move, a charitable trust which aims to make dance, acrobatics and circus more accessible.

Jenny Ritchie, the circus programmer for Move, says she hears a common refrain from people when they first arrive at the class.

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13 Apr

What Is The Tech Helping Seniors Live Independently At Home For Longer?

This from Scoop: Across the world, populations are ageing at an unprecedented rate, both as a result of medical advances and a decrease in birth rates. The forecast is alarming, estimating that by 2080, there will be more individuals aged 65 and over than people under the age of 18. The global population aged 65+ is projected to reach 2.2 billion by 2080, which outnumbers the number of children. 

As a result, ageing at home is becoming not just a preference, but a necessity. Fewer working-age individuals will be available to support the growing number of seniors, which places pressure on healthcare systems and caregiving networks. How can we make life at home as a senior safe and sustainable without sacrificing independence? 

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7 Apr

New elder abuse assessment tool to help health workers spot warning signs

A tool for health workers to detect elder abuse has been developed by the University of Auckland.

Lead researcher Kathy Peri said the tool would aid health providers in identifying whether elderly people show signs of possibly being abused.

In New Zealand, Elder Abuse Response Services received 2852 reports of abuse from Age Concern in 2022 to 2023, with an average of 11 new cases reported every workday.

However, Peri, a senior lecturer in nursing, said the figures could be the tip of the iceberg because many elderly people are reluctant to report abuse or neglect by a loved one.

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31 Mar

Etuini Ma’u: Taking care of our brains

This from E-Tangata: “Brain health isn’t something that we only worry about in old age. We need to be thinking about brain health all through our lives.” — Dr Etuini Ma‘u, old age psychiatrist, dementia researcher, and senior lecturer in psychological medicine at Auckland University. (Photo: Mark Hamilton)

With the number of over-65-year-olds in Aotearoa set to hit the million mark by 2029, many of us will already know someone with dementia. It’s a sure bet, too, that we’ll be coming across the work of Dr Etuini Ma‘u, an old age psychiatrist, dementia researcher, and senior lecturer in psychological medicine at the University of Auckland.

Here he is talking to Dale Husband, about why we should be thinking about our brain health now.

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31 Mar

Debunking Stereotypes About Aging

Key points

• Aging stereotypes are common, developing very early in life.
• Common aging mindsets involve health, financial success, appearance, and senior living communities.
• People with more flexible thinking styles typically push through these stereotypes and thrive.

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30 Mar

The 'Mind' diet could help keep your brain sharp as you age

Scientists have been quietly building a case that what you eat in midlife shapes your brain decades later. This is what the evidence actually shows.


The Mediterranean diet – rich in olive oil, fish, vegetables and legumes – has long been linked to better heart health. Growing evidence suggests it may also help support brain health as we age, with a brain-focused variation of the diet drawing increasing scientific attention.

It is called the Mind diet. The name stands for Mediterranean-Dash Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay – though what matters more than the acronym is what it actually involves: plenty of green vegetables, beans, whole grains, nuts, berries, poultry and fish, with olive oil as the main cooking fat, and limited amounts of red meat, butter, cheese, fried food and sweets. It combines the most brain-friendly elements of two well-studied eating patterns: the traditional Mediterranean diet and the Dash diet, which was originally developed to lower blood pressure.

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27 Mar

Age Concern Auckland helps seniors enhance their digital literacy

A Digital Literacy Programme in east Auckland has taken off with “remarkable momentum”, transforming curiosity into confidence for a growing group of older learners.

The final session of the course run by Age Concern Auckland is being staged today, March 27, from 1.30pm to 3pm at Botany Library.

Age Concern Auckland’s social connections co-ordinator, Shalini Gulani, says: “What began with just 13 participants quickly expanded to 20 within a week, as word spread about the programme’s supportive and energising environment.

“Over the course of six weeks, participants were guided through the fundamentals of smartphone use.

“Sessions covered essential skills such as adjusting settings, connecting to wi-fi, using hotspots and Bluetooth, making calls, and sending messages.

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25 Mar

Age Concern responds to government fuel relief package

Critics say the government's cost-of-fuel relief package won't help some of the most vulnerable New Zealanders. Yesterday, the government announced almost 150 thousand New Zealand families would receive up to $50 dollars a week through the in-work tax credit to help with soaring petrol prices. Age Concern Auckland CEO Kevin Lamb.

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16 Mar

How strength training could be the key to healthy ageing

One news: Healthy ageing is about staying independent, maintaining mobility and continuing to enjoy everyday activities as you get older. For many people, what matters most is being able to get out of a chair without help, carry shopping home, climb the stairs and recover quickly after illness.By Christopher Hurst for The ConversationOne of the most important and well-established factors in healthy ageing is muscle strength. Sarcopenia, the age-related loss of muscle mass and strength, leads to reduced physical function and mobility.Over time, muscles become smaller and weaker. This matters because muscle does more than move our limbs: it stabilises joints, supports balance and acts as a reserve during illness or injury.As muscle strength declines, the risk of falls and fractures increases, particularly in later life. Estimates suggest that sarcopenia affects a substantial proportion of older adults, particularly those over the age of 70.

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16 Mar

'Sliding away': Wairoa seniors forced to leave amid rest‑home closure

This from One News: The Hawke's Bay town of Wairoa currently has no rest home, leaving senior residents needing hospital-level or specialist care with no option but to leave the district – a situation local leaders are calling a crisis.

Age Concern estimates around 100 seniors in the wider Wairoa District qualify for residential care.

The town previously had a rest home operated by Heritage Lifecare, but it closed following damage caused by Cyclone Gabrielle in early 2023. Residents were relocated, and the facility has not reopened.

The closure has left families trying to manage increasingly complex care needs at home.

Tricia Cotton is caring for her 88-year-old father, Koroua, who lives with dementia, while also working full-time.

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13 Mar

‘Bad news and perfect faces’: Rebecca Gibney calls out youth-obsessed social media

In an endless scroll of filtered, gravity-defying faces, New Zealand actor and TV presenter Rebecca Gibney has fought back in an Instagram post.

“Scrolling thru social media all I see is bad news, AI rubbish or perfect photoshopped lives. Then I came to images of@rachelwardofficial and I breathed a sigh of relief,” the 61-year-old wrote yesterday morning.

“I thought I might add my unfiltered sun damaged face and my funny old cowl lick fringe and fine over processed hair to the mix.”

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12 Mar

Research suggests difficult people contribute to chronic stress and elevate biomarkers linked to ageing

This from the Hearald: Spending time with a difficult person can impact your mood in the moment. But over time, these challenging social interactions might also have a detrimental effect on your physical health, possibly making you age faster, new research suggests.

The study, which was funded by the National Institute on Ageing and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, looked at the health impacts of “hasslers” – people the researchers defined as those “who create problems or make life more difficult”.

While positive relationships have long been linked to healthier, longer lives, hasslers seem to have the opposite effect, increasing chronic stress and elevating epigenetic biomarkers associated with ageing.

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10 Mar

'Grey washing': SuperGold Card discounts skip entire regions

SuperGold Card holders are finding it difficult to cash-in on weekly supermarket discounts with a mish-mash of locations, leaving some regions missing out entirely with patchy coverage in others.

Age Concern chief executive Kevin Lamb called it an example of "grey washing".

For example, the SuperGold Card was accepted at grocery stores in most central business districts, but not in Gisborne, Marlborough Nelson, Tasman, West Coast districts nor the densely populated Auckland CBD, with a fast-growing resident senior population of more than 2000 people.

"It is portraying themselves as supporting older people, but doing what I would call the bare minimum in order to achieve that," Lamb said.

"If you're going to say that SuperGold Card gets a discount in our stores, why wouldn't you do that for every store? Not just cherry pick a handful of stores around the country and have such a lack of consistency about where those stores are located."

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5 Mar

History In Making As Governments Draft A Legally Binding Treaty For Rights Of Older Persons

Scoop World brings this story: This is indeed a historic first when governments come together to draft a legally binding possible treaty to protect the human rights of older persons. The first ever historic Inter Governmental Working Group (IGWG) meeting to protect the rights of older persons was held recently. IGWG was created by the UN Human Rights Council in April 2025 and given the mandate to draft a legally binding UN Convention on the Rights of Older Persons.

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19 Feb

Changing the NZ Super age won’t fix the country's retirement system problems on its own, panel says at New Zealand Economics For

Interest.co.nz posted this story: Labour leader Chris Hipkins says there’s big questions for us as a country about how we fund superannuation in the long-term, but raising the age of eligibility isn’t one of those questions.

His comment comes after a panel discussion at the New Zealand Economics Forum in Hamilton last week, where the panel spoke about whether the system could keep up, the age of retirement, life expectancy, and potential tweaks and their impacts on the economy and future generations.

Facilitator and former politician Steven Joyce, ANZ chief economist Sharon Zollner, Milford Asset Management chief executive Blair Turnbull, Barrister and former politician David Parker, and Aged Care Association chief executive and former politician Tracey Martin made up the panel.

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17 Feb

‘Couldn’t afford not to’: With no exit at 65 this is the reality of working in your 70s and 80s

Rotorua truckdriver Warwick Pryce could only afford to retire recently - at the grand age of 84 - and that was only possible after a charity came to his rescue.

“My rent is now half what it was, so I was able to give up work. I was sick of being bounced around on a truck every morning.

Pryce is a mechanic, but has spent the last few years working as a truck driver, getting up before sunrise to transport fertiliser from Rotorua to Kawerau and back, every day.

He’d carried on working because he “couldn’t afford not to”.

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17 Feb

New Zealand emergency rooms: No place for old men (or women)

From the Spinoff: Older people are arriving at hospital emergency departments in greater numbers than ever before, compounding the problems of long wait times and poor health outcomes for those who are frail. Is there a better way? Yes, say two New Zealand hospitals. Is the government listening? 

At Waikato Hospital’s emergency department on a Tuesday afternoon, a woman is curled in a foetal position across two stiff-backed hospital chairs designed to be durable and easy to clean, but that are uncomfortable if you are in pain. She moans quietly, then louder, holding her stomach as the spasm peaks. She looks like a woman in labour but is far too old to be giving birth. And this is not a delivery suite.

A man in flannelette pyjamas and a bathrobe sits hunched over in a wheelchair. The young woman with him, who may be his granddaughter, offers him a paper cup of water.  She tries to bring the flaps of his pyjama pants together to cover his genitals. He doesn’t seem aware of the exposure.

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13 Feb

Exercise can be as effective as medication for depression and anxiety – new study

This story by RNZ: Compared to being inactive, aerobic exercise has an especially powerful impact on the symptoms of depression.
Neil Munro, James Dimmock and Klaire Somoray for12 February 20267 min readCaption:The mental health benefits of exercise are comparable to and in some cases better than those of talk therapy and antidepressants, according to a new study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.Photo credit:Dulcey Lima / Unsplash

Depression and anxiety affect millions of people worldwide.

While treatments such as medication and psychotherapy (sometimes called talk therapy) can be very effective, they're not always an option. Barriers include cost, stigma, long waiting lists for appointments, and potential drug side effects.

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