The Big Initiatives: Increasing emotional resilience of older people

  The Big Initiatives: Increasing the emotional resilience of older people

Project aims
The strand will focus primarily around the design and delivery of an emotional resilience programme for older people.

The aims are:

• to offer advice, guidance and support to local authorities on how best to structure their existing provision in order to provide additional emotional support to older people at key transitional points in their lives.
• to develop an emotional resilience programme for older people, possibly based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) techniques, and to test how this intervention impacts on the wellbeing of this group.

An ageing population
Older people are an important and growing group who represent 16 per cent of the total population. The number of older people within the UK has increased dramatically since 1900 when there were 1.7 million people over the age of 65, to 2005 when there were over 11.2 million in this age group, an increase that is projected to continue.

Various trends are emerging that will impact on the wellbeing of the older population: increased diversity; increased affluence for some; the growing number of childless women; a decrease in the gap in life expectancy between men and women reducing the numbers of older people living alone, and conversely an increase in relationship breakdown fuelling the number of single person older people households.

As people age they are more likely to face major stressors such as bereavement and the onset of various diseases and disabilities: an individual’s ability to deal with these has much to do with their emotional resilience, and their ability to compensate for change, loss and decline.

To date initiatives to increase the wellbeing of older people have tended to focus on remedial rather than preventative measures, primarily on health, participation and improving independence. Comparatively little focus has been placed on mental health disorders such as depression, which have relatively high prevalence in later life.

Working in Manchester and South Tyneside, the project will work to develop an ‘emotional reablement strand’ in order to complement the vast amount of work already taking place focusing on physical needs. Adding to existing initiatives targeting the older population in both local authority areas, clusters of services will be developed that provide support to older people suffering from anxiety and depression, based around existing non-stigmatising provision.

Clusters could include:

• existing services (South Tyneside’s befriending service, Manchester’s GP supporting people project, good neighbours scheme, CPNs in both areas)
• referral to other groups such as allotment groups that can offer beneficial activities
• a new CBT service for people who have experienced difficult life events.
  

As part of the development of the older people's strand the Young Foundation hosted a meeting of experts in January 2007. In preparation for this a review of literature sources was prepared, which can be downloaded here. Some initial thoughts for the potential development of practical initiatives were presented to the group. The presentation can be downloaded here.

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