Meeting the mental health needs of older women: taking social inequality into account

Whilst there is increasing acceptance that social inequalities have implica tions for mental health, there is minimal acknowledgement of their effects on the development and treatment of mental ill health in older people. This paper focuses on older women, as they are the majority sufferers of mental illness in later life, and are particularly vulnerable to the cumulative e ffects of lifelong and age-related inequalities. Tile authors, who draw upo n literature from the fields of gerontology and mental health, argue that f or effective care to be developed, older women's mental ill health needs to be seen within the context of their past and present experience of social inequalities. Evidence particularly relates to socio-economic disadvantages as well as to the consequences of discrimination. It is argued that psycho logical vulnerability is further compounded by the gendered effects of soci al policy, and by a care system which constructs mental health needs as unr elated to oppression, and dislocated from their economic, social and histor ical roots. Finally, the authors outline the key components of a care and s ervice system which takes account of social inequalities, and which accords centrality to the experiences, views and opinions of older women with ment al health problems.