Editorial
| Published date | 01 June 2001 |
| Date | 01 June 2001 |
| Pages | 2-2 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13619322200100011 |
| Author | Elizabeth Parker |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
Editorial
Elizabeth Parker
Editor
ife in the 21st century will be better
for many older people – they are healthier, leading
more active and fulfilling lives and living longer. Yet
there is a paradox – older people use approximately
half of all health and social care services, and account
for two-thirds of emergency medical admissions to
hospitals. Psychiatric illness is probably the largest
single cause of chronic infirmity in people over 65
years of age. The two most prevalent conditions are
dementia and depression and, following on from
the latter, the highest suicide rate of any age group
occurs in people over 75 years old. The Government’s
intentions for mentally ill older people were not
included in the National Service Framework for
Mental Health but are set out in the National
Service Framework for Older People, which was only
published as this issue of the Review went to press.
The papers in this issue clearly show what needs
to be done: early and accurate diagnosis, interventions
of proven effectiveness, suitable housing and
measures to alleviate the loneliness and social
isolation which older people so often suffer. Housing
is a particularly important and emotionally fraught
subject. Current practice, in line with older people’s
wishes, is to develop domiciliary services. But the
policy of keeping people in their own homes for as
long as possible raises the question of where the line
is drawn between older people, and their carers,
successfully or even adequately, managing by
themselves and those older people and their carers
who, despite severe difficulties, are having to manage
by themselves. It is ironic that at a time when new
minimum standards for residential homes are being
Lintroduced, including larger rooms and single
occupancy by 2005, that thousands of elderly people
are finding it harder to obtain places, as an average of
18 residential homes a week are closing across Britain.
The chronic shortage of places in residential homes
means more ‘bed blocking’ as discharging patients
from hospital becomes increasingly difficult.
The development of a holistic, person-centred
approach to older people with mental health problems
is a recurrent theme. It is evident that services for this
group, as for older people generally, must be both
comprehensive and effectively co-ordinated in order
to meet the needs of both the sufferers and their
carers and an integrated service is expected to be a
dominant focus of the National Service Framework.
It remains to be seen whether the additional invest-
ment required will be forthcoming.
‘Comprehensivness’ and ‘co-ordination’ were
dominant issues when the mental health of older
people was last addressed by the Mental Health Review
in January 1998. Since then there seem to have been
ever more detailed descriptions of what is required
and, encouragingly, examples of services aiming to
fulfil the blueprints. Against this background the
National Service Framework has the opportunity to
focus, facilitate and propel into action all the good
practice that has been so well identified. A Framework
that is as tightly drawn and with as specific standards
as the National Service Framework for Mental Health
would serve older people well.
Elizabeth Parker
Editor
2The Mental Health Review Volume 6 Issue 2 June 2001 ©Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) 2001
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