OU’s Take Five to Age Well wins 2025 Self-Care Award

The Open University (OU)-led Open Societal Challenge recognised for empowering older adults to build lasting healthy habits and fostering community wellbeing has won the Self-Care Forum’s 2025 Self-Care Award.

The winner, Take Five to Age Well — led by Dr Jitka Vseteckova in the OU’s Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies — was praised for its simple yet powerful approach to helping people adopt daily habits across five key areas: eat, drink, move, connect, and think.

It is a powerful example of how OU research and Age UK embraced the challenge to drive change at both personal and policy levels under the Open Societal Challenge of Living Well.

This year’s Self-Care Week theme — “Mind & Body” — highlights the vital connection between physical and mental health, encouraging individuals and communities to take small steps every day to nurture both. 

The Self-Care Awards reflect that theme by recognising initiatives that make self-care practical, inclusive, and sustainable for everyone. 

Self-Care Forum Chair and judge Helen Donovan commended the Take Five to Age Well initiative, saying:

“Remarkably, 87% of survey respondents largely maintained their daily habits nine months on. The impact and the sheer number of partners — 500 — made it a stand-out initiative and a clear winner.”

Developed through co-design with older adults, clinicians, and charities, Take Five to Age Well blends digital and offline tools to ensure accessibility, particularly for carers and those who are digitally excluded. Since its 2023 pilot and 2025 national rollout, it has engaged over 5,000 participants and 500 partner organisations, demonstrating that self-care can be inclusive, low-cost, and highly scalable. The initiative has become a blueprint for preventative care and healthy ageing across the UK.

Dr Jitka Vseteckova said:

“We’re delighted to see Take Five recognised with this award. It’s a testament to the strength of community partnerships and the power of small, daily actions to improve both mind and body. Our aim has always been to make healthy ageing achievable for everyone.”

The awards have been announced in the run-up to National Self-Care Week which runs from 17-23 November 2025.

Take Five to Age Well is one of the OU’s Open Societal Challenges, which tackle some of the most important societal challenges of our time through impact-driven research. The programme’s focus on the themes of Tackling Inequalities, Living Well and Sustainability align well with the OU’s mission to be open to people, places, methods and ideas.