Mental health articles

The health service has changed apace since the fi rst edition of this ABC. Top-down management of services has made sweeping changes in the mental health services for adult’s of working age, achieved with (from an older adult’s perspective) massive fi nancial investment. Older adults mental health services have also had to change, responding to ‘high level drivers’, developments in treatment options and increasingly close work with other agencies both statutory and non-statutory. For the most part these have been changes for the better, but the failure to fund the National Service Framework (NSF) for Older People, and the pressure on NHS trusts to meet the milestones of the NSF for adults of working age, have often left older adults’ services at a disadvantage. However, older adults’ services seem to be increasingly important on the political agenda, and there are hopes that these important services can be put on a sound footing, to help address the very extensive suffering that mental health problems bring to the elderly population.

Tags: Health, mental, old age