Age needs one voice. Now it has:
Age UK is the new force combining Age Concern England and
Help the Aged in England.
The new force combining &
Depression is an illness that blights the lives of too many of us in later life. However, it is not an inevitable part of getting older. Depression is the most common mental health problem for all ages. And it is an illness that can be treated.
More than two million of us over 65 suffer from depression. But because of our age, many of us don’t receive the help we need. Doctors struggle to spot the signs of depression, and those who do are constrained by the narrow range of treatments available on the NHS. The NHS is failing us, so we receive worse care than younger people with depression. We want the NHS to see us as people; see our needs and not just our age. We want help to get better.
We call for immediate action. We want to see all of us with depression encouraged to seek help (visit our keeping healthy pages for more about seeking help for depression). We want to see all doctors receive training so that they are able to correctly diagnose depression. We are pushing the government and the NHS to change their policies and practice, so that we can receive the full range of effective treatments and support.
If you have experienced ageist attitudes from mental health professionals, or if you have been denied treatments for depression, please contact us and share your experiences.
Order our new booklet 'feeling blue?', which can be used to help you discuss depression with your GP. The booklet, along with an awareness-raising poster are new free materials to provide support and encouragement.
Download our new resource 'Feeling blue?'
Have your say in the decisions that affect our lives, by joining an independent local forum.
By working together in local forums, we are making our voices heard on the issues that matter to us in later life, influencing the provision of services locally, regionally and nationally.
Set your location to see what Age UK offers in your local area.
If you think you may be depressed, use this leaflet to help start the discussion with your GP.
The sooner you seek treatment, the sooner the depression will lift, so have a chat with your GP using our helpful tips.
It will take time before depression lifts fully, so be patient and gentle on yourself.
Useful tips on how best to support your loved one and avoid becoming depressed yourself.
If you start to lose interest in the things you enjoy, then it may be a sign of depression.
When depression first occurs later in life, it is more likely to be associated with ill health.
With the right treatment plan you stand a very good chance of getting better, whatever age you are.
CBT helps to address the behaviour patterns and unhelpful thoughts that occur in depression.
Counselling and psychotherapy provide a place for feelings to be talked and thought about.
IPT is a talking therapy in which you explore ways to get what you want from your relationships.
There are a number of steps that you can take to help your recovery from depression.
Feeling that you have no hope for the future can be frightening, but understanding these thoughts can help you to deal with them.
Downloads
A download is a document (like a research report, a leaflet, or an application form) that can be transferred from our website to your computer. You can download a file, view it on your screen, print it, or save it to your computer.
PDF stands for ‘portable document format’.
Most downloads on this website are PDFs. We use this format to ensure that the document looks the same on everyone’s computer (website pages, by contrast, appear differently depending on how people have set their computer up).
Computers use a program called Adobe Acrobat Reader to download PDFs. If you try clicking on a link to download a PDF and it doesn’t work, you will need to install Adobe Acrobat Reader onto your computer.
The process is quite straightforward and is free.
PDFs cannot be changed. If you need to be able to type into a downloaded document (for example, if we are offering a letter template that you need to put your name on) we will provide it as a Microsoft Word document rather than a PDF. You can then download it, type into it and save it to your computer.
Downloads will open on your computer in a new browser window.
Inside this window (below all your web browser menus), there will be a toolbar with options for you to print or save the document.
Close the browser window to return to the Age UK website.
We have made every effort to make our PDFs accessible to screen readers. Here is an overview of your accessibility options available in Acrobat Reader. Please ensure that you have downloaded the latest version of Acrobat Reader from the Adobe Reader website to ensure that they are included in your version of the programme.
You can use Adobe Reader to read a PDF out loud with the following shortcut keys:
You can also convert a PDF into a web page by following these steps:
You can convert a PDF document into a text file for use with other software and hardware such as Braille printers by opening the PDF and choosing ‘Save as text’ from the File menu.
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