Project aims

The strand will focus primarily around the design and delivery of an emotional resilience programme for older people.

The aims are:

• to offer advice, guidance and support to local authorities on how best to structure their existing provision in order to provide additional emotional support to older people at key transitional points in their lives.
• to develop a cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) based emotional resilience programme for older people and to test how this intervention impacts on the wellbeing of this group.

An ageing population

Older people are an important and growing group who represent 16 per cent of the total population. The number of older people within the UK has increased dramatically since 1900 when there were 1.7 million people over the age of 65, to 2005 when there were over 11.2 million in this age group, an increase that is projected to continue.

Various trends are emerging that will impact on the wellbeing of the older population: increased diversity; increased affluence for some; the growing number of childless women; a decrease in the gap in life expectancy between men and women reducing the numbers of older people living alone, and conversely an increase in relationship breakdown fuelling the number of single person older people households.

As people age they are more likely to face major stressors such as bereavement and the onset of various diseases and disabilities: an individual’s ability to deal with these has much to do with their emotional resilience, and their ability to compensate for change, loss and decline.

To date initiatives to increase the wellbeing of older people have tended to focus on remedial rather than preventative measures, primarily on health, participation and improving independence. Comparatively little focus has been placed on mental health disorders such as depression, which have relatively high prevalence in later life.

Full of life: wellbeing in later years

This strand of the Local Wellbeing Peoject is currently developing a new Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) based service for people aged sixty-five and above who are experiencing mild anxiety or depression. Volunteers from this same age range have been trained to deliver an eight-week course developed by Dr Chris Williams, a psychiatrist at Glasgow University. 

The aim of this unique peer-support service is to create a ‘win-win’ situation in which the wellbeing and emotional resilience of the clients increases through using the service and the wellbeing and emotional resilience of the volunteers improves through delivering the service and becoming more active in the community.

What has been done so far?

Sixteen volunteers have been specially trained by Chris Williams and his team to deliver the 'Full of Life' materials. The proposed service is currently being piloted as an individual telephone service in South Tyneside and as group sessions in Manchester. A small evaluation is running alongside the pilot to ensure that the volunteer training is of a high quality and that the service is tailored to the needs of older people. 
 

As part of the development of the older people's strand the Young Foundation hosted a meeting of experts in January 2007. In preparation for this a review of literature sources was prepared, which can be downloaded here. Some initial thoughts for the potential development of practical initiatives were presented to the group. The presentation can be downloaded here.

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