The “Lisbon, City of All Ages” programme was established in September 2018 through a protocol between the Lisbon City Council (CML), the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa (SCML), the Social Security Institute, the Regional Health Administration and the Public Security Police, with two main goals:

• implement integrated, articulated and proximity responses;
• and promote the quality of the intervention in the area of longevity and ageing.

The achievement of these goals is based on the operationalisation of a set of measures framed in three strategic axes: active life, independent life, and supported life. The RADAR Project is the instrument to operationalise the programme, its priority being the promotion of neighbourhoods with more solidarity, communication, and attention to the 65+ population, with a view to preventing isolation and loneliness from a community perspective.

Besides the 30 organisations involved, the RADAR Project is based on a Community Radar network made up of local businesses and non-governmental organisations, which act as the city's "eyes and ears” to identify situations of social isolation, seeking to activate existing local resources in response to the needs identified.

Based on a collaborative digital platform, RADAR allows centralising information in a single support accessible to all entities, optimising communication and data sharing. It also allows for monitoring and evaluating the social impact of the intervention in a structured and consistent way.

The ESF+ Pais Vasco has been designed taking into account the existing needs and challenges at the regional level. The main objective of the Programme is to improve the living conditions of Basque society through the improvement of social inclusion systems and labour market conditions, so that all people, regardless of their social group and characteristics, are assured decent living standards with the possibility of upward development of their quality of life.

Within the political objective "A more social Europe", the ESF+ Pais Vasco is articulated based on 4 investment priorities:

• P1: employment, adaptability and social economy,
• P2: social inclusion and fight against poverty,
• P5: youth employment,
• P7: child guarantee.

There is also the possibility that a line for innovation actions may be established and opened during the implementation period of the instrument.

On the national level, the UN 2030 Agenda is implemented through the Austrian Health Targets, which form the guiding framework until 2032 for the regional policy instrument addressed, Vienna’s Healthcare Goals (Wiener Gesundheitsziele) Plan.

Vienna has defined a plan in two phases, the first of which includes nine concrete goals for the healthcare sector in the period up to 2025. In a second period, the policy is evaluated and adapted according to the overarching national framework, therefore continuing its performance until 2032.

Loneliness and social isolation are addressed in Goals 5 and 7 of Vienna’s Healthcare Goals Plan, supported by Social City Vienna’s “Platform against Loneliness”.

• Increasing health literacy (#5) among the Viennese population:The goal to improve the health literacy of young and socially disadvantaged people is linked to the platform’s measures of raising awareness about loneliness and supporting access to information to overcome social isolation. Often, mental health and loneliness are still taboo, especially among the young. Therefore, measures are developed to help people to find opportunities for contact with others.
• Strengthening the psycho-social health (#7) of Vienna’s population:The lack of a supportive social environment is a risk factor for mental health across the age groups. To address social isolation and loneliness, measures for different groups are developed, tested, and evaluated by the platform, to strengthen social skills for healthy relationships.

The current Fingal Age Friendly Strategy is based on World Health Organisation Guidelines and has been informed by international and national policy and local consultation. Its strategic goals are structured around eight thematic areas identified by the World Health Organisation (2007) as augmented and categorised by the WHO Age Friendly Environments in Europe project 2018 with its 3 strategic domains and 8 strategic focus areas;

• outdoor spaces and buildings;
• housing; transportation;
• respect and inclusion;
• social participation;
• civic participation and employment;
• communication and information;
• and community supports and health services.

The priorities and actions identified in the strategy are focused on promoting Age Friendly initiatives throughout Fingal and underpin the work of the Fingal Age Friendly Alliance.

The next strategy (policy instrument) will feature the WHO guidelines and/or best practice elsewhere and how to address the key issues of relevance to people as they age. Older people are not one singular cohort and it is acknowledged there are variances across this broad grouping of people with different characteristics and needs which should be considered.

It will address how the Local Authority will work to ensure that the needs of the older person both current and future, are addressed through inclusive policy making. It is expected that combatting loneliness and social isolation will feature significantly in this next strategy and in subsequent initiatives.

Within the municipality, the city of Aalst, the political agreement on governance and the multi-year plan define the focus of the current policy. In Aalst, the focus on health and care is strongly embedded, through history and the local economic reality. This translates into the policy document selected for this project.

The chosen policy document is the strategic approach of the city regarding health and care. The document embodies the vision of the municipality to grow further towards a city where young and old live in good health and quality of life, with attention to accessibility and socialization of care.

The document starts by explaining the mandate and the responsibility of the municipality towards health and care. It explains how the Flemish government and multiple local decrees ask the local governments to work on the improvement of this field. The document works on two of Aalst's policy objectives: a City focused on Health and Care and the creation of an Industrious City – this last objective works on the element of innovation and economic improvement in health and care.

The goal of the document itself is to portray the analysis of the current challenges of the objectives above and the strategic approach which results in the reform.

After external and internal baseline measurement, 3 strategic goals were formed, and these goals led to operational goals. A list of actions was derived and shapes the current policy of the municipality.

Within KORALE, the policy instrument is the Central Denmark Region's "Health Agreement" for the period 2024-2027. Each of the five regions in Denmark formulates a health agreement every four years. These regional agreements establish the overall framework for collaboration within the healthcare sector (municipalities, regions, and general practices) and encompass the establishment of common objectives within the sector.

One of the chosen areas is "Psychiatry and well-being", with a particular focus on prevention. The chosen indicators are based on the regional "How are you?" health surveys conducted every four years (next in 2025), which are run by the research team involved in KORALE.

The team aims to play a key role in the implementation of this key area by defining a role for the alleviation of loneliness to improve well-being and prevent poor mental health. Their work will build on existing collaborations with municipalities to show practical paths for implementation.

Simultaneously, a national strategy on loneliness has been approved by the Danish Parliament (June 2023) and is expected to be implemented nationally, regionally and locally within the coming year. Therefore, a second aim is to have loneliness as a specific focus area with its own indicators in the next generation of "Health Agreements". The development of these agreements will begin in early 2027 as KORALE comes to an end.