An introduction to the mental health of older people

These e-learning resources are freely available to all users and, through audio, video and interactive uses of technology, aim to raise awareness of key issues, research, messages, policies and approaches relating to the mental health of older people and, in so doing, positively impact on practice.

Click on a title below to open the resource.

Title	Title	Key areas covered
	An introduction to mental health and older people	Ageing population statistics, defining old, defining mental health.
	Attitudes and images of ageing	Attitudes to older people, poverty and old age, older people’s own attitudes.
	Risks and protective factors: older people’s mental health	Importance of mental health, defining mental health (2), mental health and successful ageing, promoting mental health.
	Common mental health problems amongst older people	Introduction to depression, introduction to dementia, long standing mental ill-health.
	Understanding the early stages of dementia	Recognising and diagnosing dementia, living with dementia, community support, values and attitudes in care.
	Understanding later stage dementia	Later stage dementia, communication, treatments and interventions, independence, carers and families.
	Understanding depression in later life	What is depression and who gets depressed?, diagnosis, risk and protective factors, suicide.
	Ageism, age discrimination and social exclusion	Age differentiation and discrimination, ageism, ageism in health and social care, social exclusion.
	Services for older people with mental health problems	Service user statistics, policy context, the care pathway, assessment, cross cutting issues.
	The life course approach	The life course, life stories, reminiscence and the biographical approach.

Who they are suitable for:

These e-learning resources are suitable for social work students, social workers, social work support staff, care home staff, home care workers, health/social care workers who deliver long term care in community or institutional settings, voluntary workers and older people themselves.

These resources can be studied individually as self-study materials, used with students in a classroom or integrated within an institution’s training programme.

You can use these resources to gain 10 credits towards a university award.

Click here to find out more about accreditation.

Copyright

All material in these e-learning resources, including text, graphics, photographs, video and audio is copyright of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), unless otherwise stated. Use of these resources, and import of the resources into learning management systems, for educational purposes is freely permitted, but commercial use of this learning resource is not authorised unless permission is first obtained from SCIE.