"A LONG TIME COMING"
Age discrimination in mental health services is a significant problem that has to be addressed as an urgent priority, according to a new report from NDTi. A Long Time Coming shares findings from a project that NDTi carried out with the National Mental Health Development Unit (NMHDU) to identify strategies and approaches for achieving age equality in mental health. This project involved working with two health and social care communities in the Midlands to help them audit local services and identify actions for achieving age equality in mental health services.
A Long Time Coming presents the findings and key messages from this work in two parts:
Part 1 shares key findings, including the 4 key areas of age discrimination in mental health services. These are:
· primary care responses to older people's mental health needs;
· inadequate responses and poor treatment in general hospitals;
· inequity of access to treatment based on age;
and
· widespread assumptions about a lack of benefit of treating older people's mental ill health, despite evidence to the contrary.
Part 1 also outlines strategic approaches for achieving age equality in mental health services, including a new definition and vision of what this means in practice.
Part 2 focuses on the experiences of the 2 areas in the Midlands in auditing local mental health services and presents practical ideas for how local health and social care communities can work together to deliver age equal mental health services.
We have attached the report that we think you will be most interested in reading – but you can also download and share both parts of the report from the A Long Time Coming page on the NDTi website.
We hope that you find the report useful in your own organisation's work in improving services and outcomes for older people, and eradicating age discrimination in all of its guises.
Helen Bowers
Director, Older People & Ageing Programme
National Development Team for Inclusion
www.ndti.org.uk
