Planning for older people's mental wellbeing

In 2019, Te Pou began working on the workforce development needed for working with older people who have mental health and substance use challenges. The project found that older people are often invisible in conversations about mental health and addiction and their needs are not well understood. The full report is available here. A key finding is that the data describing older people’s health needs and service use is fragmented, can be difficult to access, and may be incomplete.

The COVID-19 pandemic and responses are likely to impact many older people’s wellbeing for some time. To inform services looking to support older people, Te Pou has produced this factsheet. It compiles useful published data sources and presents relevant data describing prevalence and service use across the service domains described in the Ministry of Health’s (2020) Kia Kaha, Kia Māia, Kia Ora Aotearoa: COVID-19 Psychosocial and Mental Wellbeing Recovery Plan.