Mental health community liaison in aged care: a service of value to all

Abstract

Aim. This paper describes an effective community nursing role in which mental health care is brought to long-term care in a way that restores and promotes mental health wellbeing in the older person, builds understanding between clinicians, and develops staff confidence in attending to the whole needs of residents of nursing homes. Background. Mental health is a significant issue in the ageing population and there is much that mental health nurses as well as staff in long-term care can do to promote early detection of problems, facilitate effective treatment and build coping in the older person and family so that they recover from grief or depression issues and go on to make this stage of life satisfying and rewarding. Conclusions. The mental health nurse liaison role is a useful contribution to comprehensive aged care in the community. The role provides support to clinicians enabling them to develop skills and expand their area of practice, whilst creating an environment in which the needs of the client may also be better understood and thereby met.

Fragmentation in Australian Commonwealth and South Australian State policy on mental health and older people: A governmentality analysis

“…This is particularly the case in Western society where a bio-medicalised lens unproblematically associates ageing with the body’s decline (Phelan, 2011) and an economically determined policy perspective positions older people as ‘unproductive and a burden on society as a whole’ (Biggs, 2001: 306). Ageism has been described as ‘a prevalent social attitude that overvalues youth and discriminates against the elderly’ (McAllister and Matarasso, 2007: 149), an attitude that is evident in Commonwealth mental health policy that views the ageing population as a problem and focuses policy action on young people. As Phelan (2011: 898) points out, ageism in health care is evident in views of health deterioration ‘as part of the “normal” ageing process, resulting in a fatalistic attitude towards what intervention will achieve’.…”