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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Meeting the mental health needs of older women
— taking social inequality into account | | Author(s) | Alisoun Milne, Jennie Williams |
| Journal title | Ageing and Society, vol 20, pt 6, November 2000 |
| Pages | pp 699-724 |
| Keywords | Older women ; Mental disorder ; Needs [elderly] ; Psychiatric treatment ; Sexual equality. |
| Annotation | Whilst there is increasing acceptance that social inequalities have implications for mental health, there is minimal acknowledgement of their effects on the development and treatment of mental illness in older people. This paper focuses on older women; they form the majority sufferers of mental illness in later life, and are particularly vulnerable to the cumulative effects of lifelong and age-related inequalities. The authors draw on gerontology and mental health literature to argue that for effective care to be developed, older women's mental ill health needs to be seen in the context of their past and present experience of social inequalities. Evidence particularly relates to socio-economic disadvantages as well as to the consequences of discrimination. It is argued that psychological vulnerability is further compounded by the gendered effects of social policy, and by a care system which constructs mental health needs as unrelated to oppression, and dislocated from their economic, social and historical roots. The key components are outlined of a care and service system which takes account of social inequalities, and the experiences, views and opinions of older women with mental health problems. (KJ/RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-010319203 A |
| Classmark | BD: E: IK: LP: TM8 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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