ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses mental health and ageing as contexts that demonstrate the importance of cultural relevance given traditional conceptions of mental illness and indigenous practices surrounding older people and widowhood. It examines the institutional, legal, and policy context of mental health and cultural conceptions of mental illness. Turning to ageing, it examines the policy and services context, sociocultural practices surrounding ageing, and the social work role. It shows how an absence of legislation to provide a framework and standards for the protection and promotion of the rights of people living with mental health conditions and older persons leads to problems in service provision to two highly vulnerable sectors of the population. It highlights the importance of a cultural understanding to understand barriers to treatment or the inhumane treatment of widows and childless women, for example. It proposes that social work can play a crucial role and, as in other contexts of practice, highlights the need to educate policy makers and the general public on social workers' contribution to human wellbeing.
