Mental Health Research Paper

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Depression and various types of mental illness is seen more frequently in people over the age of sixty-fix years old. There are many different factors that contribute to the higher rates of mental illness, including depression and suicide, seen in the elderly population today. It is exceptionally important for not only the elderly, but people of all ages to be educated on how we can reduce the high rates of mental illness in people over sixty-five. According to Edelman health promotion is “The service and art of helping people change their lifestyle to move toward a state of optimal health. The process of advocating health to enhance the probability that person, private, and public support of positive health practices will become a societal …show more content…

There are many factors to this that I will discuss later, but first we need to make sure persons over sixty- fix are utilizing the mental health services provided to them. Health disparities like transportation, socioeconomic status, and social support are all problems some elderly persons face when trying to access mental health assistance. However, one of the biggest factors is where or not that person, their family, or religion, view mental illness as a serious health issue. Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. and with the elderly population growing being educated about risk factors can help Healthy People 2020 to achieve their goal of “improving mental health through prevention and by ensuring access to appropriate, quality mental health services.”(Healthy People 2020, …show more content…

When in community based care, or also described as living with a family member, people over sixty-fix years old usually has a better social support system and felt less lonely. However, there are also always cases of elderly abuse and or exploitation that occur with family members, so community based care isn’t always the best option. Millennial’s have been taught to have an unfavorable perspective on ageing; therefore, the elderly encounter many stereotypes and myths. Being informed about these issues could potentially change the way everyone treats and cares for the elderly. Acccording to Ryan N. Schmidt and Jong Deuk Baek (2014) listed many common risk factors that occur in elderly persons that can lead to depression. Some of these risk factors are being lonely (about 30% of non institutionalized elderly live alone), most live under the poverty lever, cognitive impairment causes depression and anxiety levels to rise, also having functional limitations, lack of social support, and negative life events all severely impact mental health in persons over sixty-fix years. (Schmidt and Baek, 2014,

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