Alone calls for greater mental health supports for older people

Michael Bolton

Charity for elderly people Alone has called for additional focus on mental health difficulties being experienced by older people.

It comes as the number of interventions to support mental health carried out by the charity has increased by almost 300 per cent in the past year.

Speaking at the Joint Oireachtas Sub-Committee on Mental Health, Alone chief executive Seán Moynihan said in last three months of last year, 29 per cent of the 1,926 older people the charity assessed for their services identified they had issues relating to their mental health, but over half of these had not attended a GP for support.

Alone also cited research from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), which found that 78 per cent of older adults who have evidence of depression, and 85 per cent who have evidence of anxiety do not have a doctor’s diagnosis.

"We do not give older age due consideration as a time when mental health difficulties may emerge for the first time. We do not discuss how getting older is associated with age-specific psychosocial risk factors for mental health difficulties, such as living alone, bereavement, physical illness, disability, and cognitive decline," he said.

"While many older people enjoy positive mental health, there is evidence to suggest that there is a significant mental health crisis among older people which is not being talked about. This has become all the more evident in the aftermath of Covid-19 restrictions. Increasingly, we are working with older people who have completely cut themselves off from their family, friends, community and life in general due to fears around Covid-19 which have not subsided."

The organisation said there must be a commitment to specific mental health policy, evidence-based programmes and research for older people, as part of Sharing the Vision - the State's national mental health policy.

Alone also said the action plan to combat loneliness and social isolation must be exacted, including funding for Irish research, and older people must be provided with additional supports to reengage with their communities, in collaboration with experts and the community and voluntary sector.

"A Dáil debate took place in April two years ago on Covid-19, mental health, and older people. Many positive ideas were discussed, and not progressed. We believe that significant action on mental health difficulties being experienced by older people is urgently overdue," Mr Moynihan said.

"As a country we put significant effort into telling older people to cocoon and stay inside, and offering them support to do so. We have not done the same to support older people to reengage with their communities. We need to identify and implement precision, research-backed interventions for the loneliness and social isolation which is impacting this group, and all other groups affected by loneliness.

"We have quoted repeatedly the research which shows that loneliness has been shown to have as severe an impact on our health as smoking. Why has it not received the same public health response?"