A charity that supports older people in Ireland has warned that mental health problems among this cohort are underdiagnosed and undertreated.

According to ALONE, the number of mental health interventions it has carried out has jumped by 300% in the last year.

In the last three months of 2022, the charity assessed almost 2,000 older people for their services. Speaking at the Joint Oireachtas Sub-Committee on Mental Health, ALONE CEO, Seán Moynihan, pointed out that of these people, 29% said they had issues relating to their mental health. However, over half of these had not attended a GP for support.

ALONE also cited research from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) which found that 78% of older adults who have evidence of depression, and 85% who have evidence of anxiety, do not have a doctor’s diagnosis.

“We do not give older age due consideration as a time when mental health difficulties may emerge for the first time. We do not discuss how getting older is associated with age-specific psychosocial risk factors for mental health difficulties, such as living alone, bereavement, physical illness, disability and cognitive decline,” Mr Moynihan said.

He noted that while many older people have good mental health, “there is evidence to suggest that there is a significant mental health crisis among older people which is not being talked about”.

“This has become all the more evident in the aftermath of Covid-19 restrictions. Increasingly, we are working with older people who have completely cut themselves off from their family, friends, community and life in general due to fears around Covid-19 which have not subsided,” he explained.

The charity has called for the funding and implementation of specific mental health policies and evidence-based programmes for older people. It has also said that the action plan to combat loneliness and social isolation must be completed, funded and committed to, if older people are to re-engage with their communities.

“A Dáil debate took place in April two years ago on Covid-19, mental health and older people. Many positive ideas were discussed but not progressed. We believe that significant action on mental health difficulties being experienced by older people is urgently overdue,” Mr Moynihan insisted.

He noted that the country “put significant effort into telling older people to cocoon and stay inside, and offering them support to do so”. However, the same has not been done to support older people to re-engage with their communities.

“We need to identify and implement precision, research-backed interventions for the loneliness and social isolation which is impacting this group and all other groups affected by loneliness,” Mr Moynihan added.

For more information on ALONE, click here.