Mental Health in Later Life: Pastoral Approaches

This chapter proposes a perspective on providing pastoral care for people at risk of, or who have mental health problems in later life. Two major areas of mental health, depression and dementia are explored, examining their impact on older people and strategies to identify risk in depression, and signs indicating need for pastoral intervention in depression and/or dementia. The work from two studies that examine issues for meaning of people, the first for older people living independently and the second in residential care, form the basis of the material presented in this chapter. It is maintained that pastoral interventions may greatly improve quality of life for these people, their families and carers.