Managing Depression, Growing Older

Kerrie Eyers is a psychologist, teacher and editor with many years' experience in mental health, based at the Black Dog Institute, Sydney, Australia. Gordon Parker is Scientia Professor of Psychiatry at the University of New South Wales and Executive Director of the Black Dog Institute, Sydney, Australia. He is a renowned researcher with over 30 years' experience with mood disorders. Henry Brodaty is Professor of Psychogeriatrics at the University of New South Wales and Director of hte Academic Department for Old Age Psychiatry at the Prince of Wales and Prince Henry Hospitals.

• Foreword. And Now we are Sixty-Five. On Growing Older. Untreated Depression in Older Age. Reaching a Diagnosis. A Structured Assessment for Depression. Melancholic and Non-Melancholic Depression. Late Onset: Depression Specific to Ageing.Therapies and the Role of the Therapist. Ageing and Coping with Care.On Managing Severe Depression. Ageing and Self-Efficacy. Caring for the Carers. Appendix I. Risk Factors for Self-Harm. Appendix II. Further Information for Older People and Carers. Appendix III. Clinician Contributors’ Short Biographies.

Perhaps surprisingly, given the topic, this is a really good read - accessible, informative and full of personal accounts as well as its more professional content. Practical but with a light touch, it combines humorous anecdotes and well-known quotes about growing old with what you need to know to diagnose and differentiate between the different types of depression - melancholic and non-melancholic - as they affect older people. ... I would recommend this book as very useful background reading for all counsellors. I learned much from it and will be returning to it for reference many time, I am sure. - Sarah Lewis, Therapy Today, March 2013