A charity which supports elderly people is calling for a ‘sustained effort’ to help improve access to mental health services.
This comes after the latest figure from NHSE shows that the number of older adults being referred to talking therapies was down by around 5,000, while cases of those reporting depressive symptoms have doubled since the pandemic began.
Independent Age is a charity that offers regular friendly contacts for older people as well as a campaigning voice and free advice for things like money, benefits, care and mobility.
Founded more than 150 years ago the organisation is pushing for further action to be taken to allow more older people to get help with their mental health.
Phil Mawhinney, policy manager at Independent Age, spoke to NR Times about this problem.
“Firstly it’s good to remember that many people in later life do access these talking therapies,” he said. “But having said that too many older people are missing out, with people over 65 only making up 6 per cent of referrals.”
“There’s less of an issue with the services themselves, it’s more about giving access to it, so access is the real challenge.
“There have been some good efforts by the likes of NHS England, Age UK and others over the years to try and raise awareness and to try and dispel some of the myths.
“That is really welcome, but there’s still an issue that needs to be solved here, there’s still some work to do.”
The pandemic has played its part in the decline of this access, but there are multiple facets to it.
Shielding has been highlighted as one of the main contributors to this.
“I think the pandemic has affected the mental health of people of all ages,” Mawhinney said. “But older people have been disproportionately high among the shielding and extremely vulnerable groups.
“There’s people of all ages shielding but older people make up a really big chunk of that, and when people are shielding at home for months, that has a huge effect on their mental health.
“One of the things we’ve picked up through our helpline is that some people haven’t seen anyone for more than a year, they can go weeks without having a conversation.”
Other elements of the pandemic have also had an impact, such as the fact that the older population are more likely to be seriously ill or die from COVID-19 which has caused a rise in anxiety levels.
Because this group is one of the worst hit by the virus, there has also been a sharp rise in those suffering from bereavement.
Independent Age estimated there have been around 300,000 over 65s enduring the death of a partner from all causes since the first lockdown.
This grief can have a huge impact on someone’s mental health and the charity has an ongoing campaign called ‘Time to Grieve’ to help combat this.
“We feel there is a real acute need for better, more consistent emotional support for people who’ve been bereaved,” Mawhinney said. “That could be providing information, advice or it could be counselling, support groups, particularly for people who’ve been bereaved in these traumatic circumstances.
“Independent Age has an open letter, which is calling on the government to fix bereavement support.”
Despite these issues, further research has continuously shown that the people in later life are some of the best responders to services like talking therapies.
On average 64 per cent of people aged 65 and over recover after using NHSE talking therapies compared to only 50 per cent from those younger, which is what makes this access so crucial.
“Some older people are reluctant to talk about their mental health,” Mawhinney continued. “I think for a minority, they think even if they do have anxiety or depression, what’s the point in coming forward because nothing can be done.
“But it’s an important point the recovery rates demonstrate, that many people who access talking therapy can make a recovery, so there’s an important bit of myth busting to do there.”
Mawhinney also wanted to point out that the lack of access to mental health services has not been solely brought on by the pandemic.
This was an issue even before the UK’s first lockdown, with a lack of awareness around these services being one.
Independent Age data said that only 54 per cent of over 65s were aware of talking therapies, which also causes a problem when it comes to self referrals.
“It’s important not just to generalise too much and say that all older people that have struggled,” Mawhinney said. “However many of those people had poor mental health and poor access to talking therapies before the pandemic.
“For some mental health will remain poor and maybe even can get worse.
“So for the government and the NHS post-pandemic planning really needs to take older people’s mental health into consideration.”
The British Association for Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) along with Age UK have recently published a best practice guide for those in the healthcare sector to better support them in improving this access.
This is something Independent Age is welcoming as they continue their own work to help tackle this issue.
“We are continuing to research older people’s experiences with the pandemic and we will continue to highlight this to the government, the NHS and others.
“An important point we want to keep highlighting is that many more older people are struggling with mental health in the pandemic, and those needs aren’t just going to automatically go back to what they were pre-pandemic.”
