Wider context
An increasing proportion of our local population in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough consists of older adults aged 65+ (PHI team, 2023). As highlighted in the most recent Chief Medical Officer’s report, life aged 65+ is a period of great happiness for many people. For others, it is a challenging time of discomfort, loss of independence and loneliness. The difference between these two outcomes is largely determined by physical and mental health: poor mental health is associated with considerable individual suffering, as well as social isolation, higher use of health and social care services and poorer outcomes for physical illness (Whitty, 2023).
This highlights the importance of a ‘renewed focus on mental health’ in this age group (Whitty, 2023). The Centre for Mental Health and Age UK has produced the following diagram which summarises the key issues impacting older adults’ mental health:
Figure 2: Key factors and themes impacting older adults’ mental health. Image source: Mental Health in Later Life
What is healthy ageing?
Healthy ageing is about enabling improved health and wellbeing, increasing independence, and resilience to adversity. It includes having the ability to be financially secure, being socially connected with friendships and support, and enjoying life (Public Health England, 2019b).
Public Health England has adopted the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) definition of healthy ageing as ‘the process of developing and maintaining the functional ability that enables wellbeing in older age’ (World Health Organization, 2020). Functional ability combines both the intrinsic capacity of the individuals, the environment they live in and how they interact with the environment (World Health Organization, 2020).
- Functional ability refers to the ability to meet basic needs, to build and maintain relationships, to learn, grow and make decisions, to contribute and to be mobile.
- Intrinsic capacity is the physical and mental strengths someone can draw on, such as locomotor capacity (physical movement), cognitive capacity and psychological capacity.
- Environments refers to both the environment someone lives in and how they interact with the environment, and includes services, the natural and built environment, technology and relationships.
Healthy ageing is a rights-based response to population ageing that aims to mitigate inequalities accumulated over the life course (World Health Organization, 2020). It recognises that ageing is a dynamic process impacted by these three domains, and that there are many opportunities to intervene to maintain functional ability in older age (Public Health England, 2019b).
References
Full list of references is included at the end of this chapter.