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Background

There is a large amount of evidence to suggest that there are mental health issues within the over 65 population. Despite this, mental health services remain under-utilised by older adults and they have a higher likelihood of undetected and untreated mental illness. Many of the elderly do not receive an assessment for their mental health. Mental health is becoming an increasing part of the workload for a paramedic and there is still a stigma attached to those who engage in providing care for the mentally unwell. Many have a ‘take them all to hospital’ approach to these patients, which is not suitable if we look at the changing role of the paramedic whereby paramedics are becoming further involved in psychosocial care, warranting the investigation into what paramedics can consider and do to better geriatric mental health care.

The databases PubMed and PSYCInfo were utilised. Papers were searched for, using specific search terms and then filtered using inclusion and exclusion criteria. Overall, six studies were selected and appraised, with guidance from the CASP tools.

Four themes were identified across the papers. Lack of education, physical illness, self-management/self-care abilities and non-pharmacological treatments all were found to play a significant role in older adult mental health care. Education, illness and poor self-management all intertwined as risk factors for mental health illness in older adults and exist as barriers, for older adults, to mental health care utilisation. Two randomised controlled trials investigated non-pharmacological treatments for late-life mental health and found them to be promising alternatives to pharmacological interventions.

There is a knowledge-gap amongst paramedics. Paramedics need to undergo educational programmes to increase their awareness of mental health in the geriatric population and the way in which they present. They must also promote better mental health amongst older adults.

References (pdf)