DZA Vortragsreihe - 20.03.2008 - 17:30 - Health is more than physical health: Innovations in research, interventions, and policies about mental health in later life - Gerben J. Westerhof, Ph. D. (Radboud University Nijmegen, NL)

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In der alternswissenschaftlichen und alternspolitischen Vortragsreihe des Deutschen Zentrums für Altersfragen (DZA), Berlin, wird Gerben J. Westerhof, Ph. D. (Radboud University Nijmegen, NL) am 20.03.2008 um 17:30 zum Thema "Health is more than physical health: Innovations in research, interventions, and policies about mental health in later life" referieren.





In the Western World physical health is seen as the most important good in later life and a good bodily functioning is taken as the most important indicator of success in old age. However, it is important to define health in a broader way than only as physical health. In this presentation I will argue that it is important to study mental health and to develop interventions and social policies to improve mental health in later life.


Mental health has often been defined as the absence of psychopathological illnesses, such as depression and anxiety. Over the last years, it has become clear that the individual and societal consequences of mental illness are as severe as those of physical illnesses. Worldwide, mental illness is among the top five causes of disability-adjusted life years, a composite measure of the burden of disease in terms of the number of years of life lost prematurely to death and the number of years lived with disability in a population.


Recent innovations in research and policies make clear that mental health is more than the absence of mental illness. The World Health Organization recently defined mental health as the presence of "a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community". In line with this broader definition of mental health, I will focus on three aspects of positive mental health: feelings of happiness and satisfaction with life, positive individual functioning in terms of self-realization, and positive societal functioning in terms of being of social value. Only those are classified as in complete mental health who have no mental illness as well as high levels of functioning.


Although mental and physical health mutually influence each other, it is an important finding that mental illness and health follow trajectories in later life which differ from that of physical health. Older persons experience more limitations in their physical functioning, but their socio-emotional functioning in terms of mental health does not differ much from younger groups and is in some aspects even better.


It is an important question how mental health in later life can be further improved. Most efforts to improve mental health in the past fifty years have been directed toward treatment of mental illness. However, it is only in recent years that evidence has accumulated that treatment of mental illness is also effective in older adults. A further challenge for the future is how mental health in terms of optimal functioning can be improved. I will present some programs which have been shown to be effective in raising mental health in older adults. I will end the presentation with some remarks on how social policies can shape societal structures which optimize mental health in later life.


Weitere Informationen:
- http://www.dza.de/allgemein/vortrag/... Vortragsreihe

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