Exploring attitudes towards mental health difficulties and help-seeking in older adults through a stigma lens: Does self-compassion play a role?

Older adults often face ageist stereotypes from surrounding systems, such as beliefs that older age brings inevitable decline, they cannot learn anything new, or benefit from talking therapy. These narratives can impact whether older people recognise their own mental health difficulties, and/or seek help, despite evidence supporting the effectiveness of therapy for older adults. Given the growing older population, gaining an up-to-date understanding of a current cohort’s attitudes towards mental health and help-seeking is crucial, for fostering self-compassionate and healthy ageing. This study explored attitudes towards mental health difficulties, internalised ageism, help-seeking, and self-compassion in 74 individuals aged 65 and older. Participants held positive attitudes towards those with mental health difficulties, with a near-significant relationship identified between this and internalised attitudes towards ageing, as well as help-seeking. Finally, self-compassion did not serve as a mediator between their attitudes towards mental health difficulties and help-seeking. Limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.