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Do socio-economic factors, elderly population size and service development factors influence the development of specialist mental health programs for older people?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2008

Ajit Shah
Ajit Shah*
Affiliation:
Ageing, Ethnicity and Mental Health, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, U.K. and West London Mental Health NHS Trust, London, U.K.
*
*Correspondence should be addressed to: Professor Ajit Shah, West London Mental Health NHS Trust, Uxbridge Road, Southall, Middlesex, UB1 3EU, U.K. Phone: +44 208 354 8140; Fax: +44 208 354 8898. Email: ajit.shah@wlmht.nhs.uk.
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Abstract

Background: Despite the increase in the proportion of older people in the population, little is known about factors that facilitate the development of specialist mental health services for older people.

Methods: The relationship between the presence of specialist mental health programs for older people and elderly population size, proportion of older people in the population, gross national domestic product (GDP), and various parameters of health funding, mental health funding and mental health service provision was examined in an ecological study using data from the World Health Organization.

Results: The presence of specialist mental health programs for older people was significantly associated with higher GDP, higher expenditure on healthcare and mental healthcare, the presence of a national mental health policy and a national mental health program, the availability of mental health care in primary care and the community, and higher density of psychiatric beds, psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, psychologists and social workers.

Conclusion: The challenge will be to persuade policy-makers in low and medium income countries, where the increase in the elderly population is most rapid, to develop specialist mental health services for older people.

Keywords

policyold age psychiatryservices
Type
Research Article
Information
International Psychogeriatrics , Volume 20 , Issue 6 , December 2008 , pp. 1238 - 1244
Copyright
Copyright © International Psychogeriatric Association 2008

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