Latent age discrimination in mental health care

The assumption, that appears to be a common one, that old age mental health is only about dementia perpetuates the invisibility of those with other severe and enduring mental illness such as psychosis, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, alcohol and drug misuse and so on. It is clear that clinical depression is in fact the most common mental disorder for older people (Burns et al 2002, Woodrow 2002). In policy and practice there is a strong focus on recognising new cases, and the needs of the older adult with established functional mental disorder is largely being ignored. Statistics on common mental disorder for the over 85s cannot be found despite the abundance of statistics available. The needs of older people with functional mental disorder are being marginalised by both: a) the assumption that people over 65 are one cohort of people; and b) by the inclusion within policy and practice documents as part of a generic group, where being an older person is assumed to be a priority rather than mental disorder being a person's primary need