Each year, the National Seniors Australia Research Team surveys thousands of older people across Australia for our National Seniors Social Survey (NSSS). 

We’ve prioritised some topic areas for the 2024 survey, the NSSS-12, and as we start to formulate the survey questions, we’d like to hear your take on those topics. 

• Older people’s experiences of ageism and elder abuse. 

• Awareness and knowledge about dementia. 

• Experiences with disability supports in later life including the NDIS. 

• Social participation, loneliness and living alone or with others in later life. 

• Healthy ageing behaviours and barriers.

• Thoughts on a cashless society and/or digital exclusion.

• Reasons for buying, changing or dropping private health insurance.
  

• Views about inherited wealth. 

We’d like to hear your thoughts on these proposed topics. Are there any particular angles within these that we should be asking older people about in the survey? 

To share your thoughts, go to our poll here and write your comments. The poll will close on the evening of Sunday, 3 September 2023. 

You’ll also have the opportunity to suggest additional survey topics, though to avoid duplication, we’d ask you to first consider our responses to members’ previous suggestions and what we’ve published in our recent research reports. 

If you’d like to know more about the NSSS in general, you can read about it here. 

In 2022, we reached out to members to find out what issues and topics were of concern to you.

Members are one of our key barometers of topic relevance, along with our advocacy campaigns, current government policy, and trends in relevant academic research.

To find out what members said they wanted to see in future instances of the NSSS, click here.

We incorporated some of those topic priorities into the NSSS-11 in 2023, with modules on cost-of-living issues, healthcare system costs and shortages, and renting, housing and homelessness.

Another priority you identified – transport issues – was partly addressed in our 2023 reports on communities and quality of life and advanced driver assistance systems.

We’ve also drafted a separate survey directed at informal carers of older people, which we hope to conduct in collaboration with other relevant community organisations.

Topics on the list yet to be addressed include ageism, abuse, disability, NDIS, and loneliness/connection – hence they are priorities for 2024.

Your thoughts matter to us – keep them coming!