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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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An age-old problem?
— [depression is not a natural part of old age] | | Author(s) | Mike George |
| Journal title | Care and Health Magazine, issue 99, 1 February 2005 |
| Pages | pp 22-23 |
| Source | http://www.careandhealth.com |
| Keywords | Depression ; Needs [elderly] ; Psychiatric treatment. |
| Annotation | Depression is considered to be one of the most prevalent health problems facing older people today: an estimated 1.4 million to 1.9 million people in Britain suffer from depression. This article argues that age discrimination prevents older people from being referred to services, especially specialist mental health services, when needed. This process may be reinforced by the National Service Framework for Mental Health which focuses predominantly on those of working age and below. Yet Professor Susan Benbow (Chair of the Faculty for the Psychiatry of Old Age at the Royal College of Psychiatry) urges a higher priority to be given to older people's needs: she believes better support can be given by community-based health and social care services. East Kent NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust already has a local area agreement framework which "offers an ideal opportunity to work on a multi-agency basis on common approaches to promoting social inclusion of older people who are isolated and potentially prone to depression." In the same way, Jonathan Ellis of Help the Aged advocates that the Single Assessment Process (SAP) "can be used as an opportunity to identify issues before they become problems". Further work undertaken by Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Trust is also mentioned. (KJ/RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-050210205 A |
| Classmark | ENR: IK: LP * |
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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