ABSTRACT

This chapter highlights how the increasing demand for mental health services for the elderly will dramatically outstrip capacity. It considers how states worldwide might create innovative and unconventional solutions to service provision in order to plug the gap and meet their obligations under the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), and particularly SDG3 relating to health and wellbeing. Key examples of innovations with special application to older adults include collaborative care, task-shifting, and integrated mental and physical health self-management. The ageing of the population is resulting in an unprecedented increase in the number of older adults with ‘serious’ or ‘severe’ mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and bipolar disorder. Global ageing will dramatically increase the burden of providing care to adults with dementia. The increasing demand for mental health services for older adults will dramatically outstrip capacity, requiring innovative and unconventional solutions to service provision around the globe.