OLDER PEOPLE AND MENTAL HEALTH: PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS, POLICY OBJECTIVES AND SERVICE PRACTICES

The research project Older People and Mental Health: Public Perceptions, Policy Objectives and Service Practices is carried out in 2007–9 as a part of the larger ChangingMinds project. The aim of the project is to analyse the relationship and conditions of public perceptions, policy objectives and service practices concerning older (60+) people’s mental health. Particular attention is paid to the understandings and treatment of depression, which is considered the most common mental health problem in old age. Depression is also the target of the Old Age Depression intervention study in the ChangingMinds project. Thus, in this project the overall project environment in the intervention municipality is being studied.


The project involves exploring:

• public perceptions of old age and mental health problems (particularly depression) to locate older people’s mental health issues in topical Finnish, EU, and Espoo discussions of social and health policy priorities, using ageing and mental health policy programmes as well as newspaper writings as data

• older people’s position in mental health care services in the intervention municipality, using statistics and management interviews as data

• professionals’ understandings and experiences of older people’s mental health issues and care services, using focus group discussions and earlier research as data

The project also assists in the implementation of the Old Age Depression support model in the intervention municipality. The ultimate goal is to advance understanding amongst policy makers and professionals of the possibilities and conditions of promoting older people’s psychological well being and preventing their mental health problems. Studying the mental health care service system in the intervention municipality produces knowledge of the current situation in the field and of the ways in which it could be improved to respond better to older people’s needs.

The results of the project will be reported as a research report, in articles and seminars, and are also utilised in the Old Age Depression intervention study.

ChangingMinds Research and Policy Development Project, Research Report no 1 / Abstract

ChangingMinds Research and Policy Development Project, Research Report no 1 / Abstract, 120 kb, Päivitetty: 31.05.2010