From the 60s to their sixties. Baby boomers — challenges and choices for public mental health
| Published date | 01 August 2008 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/17465729200800002 |
| Pages | 4-8 |
| Date | 01 August 2008 |
| Author | Toby Williamson |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
This commentary considers the demographic ‘bulge’of the so-called ‘baby boomer’generation and
the public mental health challenge that this group will represent as they move into old age.Toby
Williamson argues that now is the time to start a debate with the aim of identifying long-term
solutions to these new challenges.
From the 60s to their sixties.
Baby boomers – challenges and
choices for public mental health
T
oby Williamson
Associate Head of
Service Improvement
and Workforce
Development,Mental
Health Foundation
Correspondence to:
Toby Williamson
Mental Health Foundation
9th Floor,
Sea Containers House
20 Upper Ground
London SE1 9QB
UK
TWilliamson@mhf.org.uk
GUEST EDITORIAL
4journal of public mental health
vol 7 • issue 1
By definition, policy and practice around
public mental health issues needs to take
what could be described as both a broad
view and a long view. Broad, because an
entire population’s mental health and
well-being has to be considered, not just those with
particular problems. Long, because future trends in
demography, morbidity, and other key factors
affecting mental health must be considered and
potentially incorporated into any related health
(and social care) planning.
The demographic ‘bulge’ of the so-called ‘baby
boomer’ generation not only qualifies as one such
trend, but because it encapsulates a number of major
social, economic and demographic issues also
probably represents the biggest challenge facing
public mental health in the UK today and for the
next 15–20 years. This editorial aims to map out the
key dimensions and implications of this challenge
for public mental health, and look at it in light of
existing public mental health policies.
‘Baby boomers’ is a phrase that is currently much
used, whether it is in the context of describing
ageing rock stars or by the advertising and marketing
industries trying to map out future patterns of
consumerism, while more academic analyses have
begun to be made in relation to public policy (Biggs
et al, 2007). For many in the UK the phrase is taken
to mean the population group that was born in the
years after World War II when there was a sharp rise
in the birth rate. Certainly in the period 1945–50
there was a very significant increase in numbers of
babies being born. This group is often defined as
being the first generation of teenagers, and being
associated with liberalisation of social attitudes and
more, in the 1960s, together with the various civil
rights movements that challenged the conservative
straitjacket of the political establishment of the
same decade. Many certainly also benefited from the
economic boom of the 1950s and 60s with its
associated growth in consumerism, social mobility,
increases in disposable income, and more
opportunities for women. However for others, the
disappearance of traditional sectors of heavy
industry and manufacturing and changes in
traditional family structures may have led to more
problematic experiences. This generation also
includes a much greater proportion of people from
black and minority ethnic communities as a result of
post-war immigration.
On closer examination of the demographic data
one finds that the picture is somewhat more
complicated. While the immediate post-war baby
boom peaked in 1947 and was followed by a
significant decline in the birth rate there was a more
prolonged increase that began in the second half of
the 1950s and eventually peaked in 1964, after
which it declined again. This second ‘boom’ is very
significant, not least because the noise of its impact,
to extend the metaphor of the ‘boom’, is somewhat
drowned out by the 1945–50 boom despite being an
explosion in the birth rate of equal proportion. The
political, social and economic interest in the first
wave of baby boomers may explain why there is less
awareness of the second wave. However, in terms of
public mental health they deserve just as much
© Pavilion Journals (Brighton) Ltd
Key words
‘baby boomer’
generation
generation Jones
mental health in old age
mental health policies
health and social care
planning
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