Constructing a model to guide investment in older people's mental capital, mental health and wellbeing

Research guidance for policy and practice supporting mental health and wellbeing among older people is weak. The purpose of our network is to develop a research model to improve and support mental capital, mental health and wellbeing in later life through collaboration between academics, policy-makers, practitioners and older people. We want to understand the interactions between individual characteristics and environmental factors that improve and maintain mental health and wellbeing in later life, and also how this could be translated into policy and practice. We intend to do this by collaborating and exchanging knowledge between stakeholders from research, policy, practice and older people, reviewing existing knowledge across disciplines about mental capital and mental wellbeing in later life, and by developing high-quality research based on current evidence and models of ageing and mental health.

Our network brings together research, policy and practice across a wide range of disciplines, institutions, sectors, geographical areas and older people. It builds on an existing collaborative network of researchers. The network benefits from active involvement of several partners, e.g. voluntary organisations, local authorities, health services and older people themselves. The ten month programme will consist of three stages, framed by three main meetings and a series of consultative workshops with strategic partners and older people. A model for mental capital, mental health and wellbeing research will be developed drawing on, for example, literature reviews, consultations with older people and other experts and the consultative workshops in three geographical areas. Older people will be involved as partners at two levels. In each geographical area an Older People?s Involvement Group will be established from existing partnerships. These groups will meet independently to discuss older people?s perspectives on the suggested questions. In addition, group members will be involved in the consultative workshops. The long-term aim is to involve older people as trained peer researchers and commentators in the research developed through the network.

Each stage will generate outputs, which will be of interest and relevance to the general public. Contacts will be maintained with the media to disseminate findings of general interest and value quickly. A network website will also be established. Presentations will be made to stakeholder groups and articles written for academic, older people?s and professional journals. The activities developed through the proposed model for research will benefit older people, policy and practice by improving our understanding of the positive influences on older people?s mental health and wellbeing.

There is no comprehensive, empirical model which explains how mental capital, mental health and wellbeing are maintained and how people remain mentally robust in later life. Policy and practice supporting mental health are therefore poorly guided. The purpose of this network is to prepare a research agenda for a large multi-disciplinary study to develop, test and evaluate inter-related interventions for policy and practice that are relevant to older people.
The objectives of the network will be to facilitate effective collaboration across disciplines, sectors and older people; develop capacity by exchanging knowledge between stakeholders in research, policy, practice, and older people themselves; critically review existing knowledge and theory in relation to mental capital and mental wellbeing; develop a robust and original multidisciplinary research agenda with deliverable outcomes based on current evidence, models of ageing and mental health and the need for translational research.

The research questions are:
1. What are the interactions between individual characteristics and environmental factors that improve and maintain mental capital, mental health and wellbeing in later life?
2. How can an understanding of these be translated into policy and practice?

The proposed network builds on an existing collaborative network of researchers. The ten month programme will consist of three stages, framed by three meetings. The first meeting will agree the thematic groups for the next stage, the terms of reference, the milestones and likely outputs. The proposed thematic groups are: social gerontology; health behaviour and lifestyle; the physical environment. These may be amended at the first meeting. Constant interaction, through a coordinator, between the groups will ensure that a coherent research proposal is developed. A second meeting will aim to develop a draft for a model of mental capital, mental health and wellbeing in later life based on the work undertaken to that point. The model will be debated in three discursive workshops with the strategic partners and older people. This will inform the final stage of the development of the model and a set of hypotheses and work packages to take the proposed research forward. The final meeting in February 2010 will finalise the work packages for the research proposal.
The synergy of knowledge exchange between stakeholders, older people and other partner organisations is likely to create an arena for the development of an innovative and older people led model and research agenda for mental capital, mental health and wellbeing in later life.