Transition to Retirement

Abstract

This Policy Bulletin describes the implementation and evaluation of the Transition to Retirement (TTR) Program that was examined in a three-year collaborative program of applied research involving university researchers and disability service providers. The Bulletin ends with recommendations for policy and practice based on our research findings and on the practical experience of delivering the program. The TTR Program offered older people with disability the opportunity to begin to build a retirement lifestyle by joining a general community group for one day a week instead of working on that day. Thus, the program fulfils an important goal of disability policy: the social inclusion of people with disability in Australian community life. The program involved: talking to people with disability about retirement, investigating their interests, finding an appropriate community group for individuals to join, seeking and then training mentors from that group, and ensuring the people with disability were actively involved so they could contribute to the group.