Nearly half of women over 50 'avoid getting support for their mental health'

Woman struggling with mental health — (Image credit: Getty Images)

According to a segment on ITV's This Morning, nearly half of women over 50 avoid seeking support for their mental health, partly because they they don't want to burden others.

Being explicit about the numbers and referring to the research she was looking at, Ashley James, appearing on the show to discuss the matter, confirms, "Yes, 47% of women don't get help."

A post shared by This Morning (@thismorning)
A photo posted by on

Ashley feels that although younger women are much more vocal about their problems in the current era, and have social media to hear other voices sharing similar concerns about mental health, this doesn't undo a lifetime of conditioning to ignore concerns for some older ladies.

Sharing a personal anecdote, she says, "My gran who is in her 70s, she's the most stoic person I have ever met, she would never say anything was wrong physically or mentally."

Presenter Cat Deeley steps in to the conversation with her very relatable take on why women would choose not to seek mental health support.

For Cat, it's a lot to do with the endless to-do lists women seem unable to get to the bottom of.

"My to do list is normally so long," she shares, adding, "and there's so many things to do, from opticians appointments for the boys, to the dentist - you always float your stuff down to the bottom."

Ashley then adds succinctly, "It's the mental load." Adding weight to the argument that women, especially mothers, feel constantly overwhelmed, Ben Sheppard shares statistics on this.

"Seven out of 10 mothers say they feel overloaded," he says, continuing, "and almost half have mental health issues such as anxiety and depression."

When the segment was shared to Instagram, it garnered many comments. Many of those commenting wanted to highlight the importance of menopause and perimenopause being taken into consideration for this age group of women when it comes to mental health concerns.

Others commented to suggest they have sought help, but access to services has been prevented once they'd made that first step.

It appears that multiple factors contribute to women in midlife not getting assistance for their mental health, but society's conditioning is just one of them.

Doctors and health services need to be more aware of the impact of hormones on women, and women should have better access to mental health services when they're needed.

If you're struggling with any of the issues raised in this article, charities such as MIND can offer you support.

Lucy is a multi-award nominated writer and blogger with seven years’ experience writing about entertainment, parenting and family life. Lucy worked as a freelance writer and journalist at the likes of PS and moms.com, before joining GoodtoKnow as an entertainment writer, and then as news editor. The pull to return to the world of television was strong, and she was delighted to take a position at woman&home to once again watch the best shows out there, and tell you why you should watch them too.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.