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When most of us think about getting old – the main thing we focus on is the physical deterioration. But, the mental part of ageing is just as, or even more important. Things like grief, dementia and depression are very real issues that make coping and caring for the ageing a challenge. That's why the ministry of health today held a mental health and ageing workshop for health professionals and caregivers. I found out more from the Nursing Administrator, in the Ministry of Health's Mental Health Program, Eleanor Bennett:..

Eleanor Bennett - Nursing Administrator, in the Ministry of Health's Mental Health Program

"Today we have a workshop, we call it mental health and ageing and it's sponsored by the mental heath unit. The workshop - the main focus is to make sure the mental health staff in particular, is updated with their most recent knowledge as it relates to mental health care. We have a facilitator from New York, the Mount Sinai school of medicine - her name is Dr. Aloese and she comes from the department of psychiatry and neurology. And she spent a lot of her time doing cognitive research, research on the brain functions. She's focusing on disorders of the elderly which include dementia, the most common one is alzheimer. She will talk about mood disorders, anxiety disorders and talk about problems of the elderly such as grief and isolation."

Courtney Weatherburne

"So the main focus on the mental health staff actually - more of an internal workshop?"

Eleanor Bennett

"It's more of an internal workshop, however we have invited people from help age, from the residential institutions because a lot of what she's talking about is how to manage behaviours that are associated with mental health conditions. It will was important for us to share this knowledge with them so that they can take this back and train their people on how to respond to somebody who has alzheimer or is aggressive, who is depressed and doesn't want to participate. So we have invited them because they will benefit from this revelations as well. They're several challenges, this age particular we don't have enough funding. We find that in terms of the adherence to treatment, take their medications. Because of the process of the disease itself, we don't get them complying very much with the medication. We also have challenges with care givers, support. Support for the family and what the facilitator was talking about is that it's really important and care givers are supportive. Because the stress of dealing with somebody with a mental heath disorder and an elderly person with a mental health disorder sometimes compromises their ability to function well as caregivers. Might lead to irritation, they might be able to handle the behaviours adequately and so in that respect, we are hoping to learn new ways how to support them as well."

Other topics discussed include anxiety disorders, Mood disorders and grief. It was a one day workshop.