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Listen
Well? Issue 4: Spring/Summer 2004
Profile: Nell McFadden
Nell McFadden MBE describes herself as "a grass roots pensioner". But at 76, a staunch activist for the mental health rights of older people, and a member of 16 committees, most people would say she is anything but...
A shopworker in Gourock for most of her working life, Nell took a secretarial course and became a civil servant at the age of 48. It was when she retired at 60 that things started to go wrong.
"I come from quite a poor family, and had raised two children while I was working and was always busy," says Nell, who is chairperson of both the Greenock Community Care Forum and the Elderly Forum in Inverclyde.
"My own experience of depression taught me to be sympathetic towards people who suffer from mental illness"
"But when I retired, I didn't have so much to do. I became bored and the days became a nightmare. I simply couldn't function properly and started having panic attacks and getting very tearful. I knew there was something wrong and went to the doctor.
"Apart from prescribing some mild medication, he told me to go into the community and 'get involved' - so that's exactly what I did."
A poster in the local press led to Nell attending a meeting to set up the first Elderly Forum in Inverclyde where she was immediately elected to the committee. That was 15 years ago.
Today, she works tirelessly campaigning on behalf of older people to highlight a number of issues, including mental health. She is also in demand as a public speaker and has presented talks to Unilever, Anchor Homes, Durham University and NHSScotland entitled "Mental Health and Well-Being: An Older Person's View".
Nell admits that her experience of depression all those years ago had a profound impact on her life and is committed to ensuring that mental health issues of older people are given the priority they deserve.
"People are now living much longer which means there is much more likelihood of dementia and mental health problems in later life. So we have to prepare ourselves for this by providing the right support services, meeting older people's needs and improving their quality of life. We also need to ensure that people working in residential homes are properly qualified to treat older people with mental health problems. There's simply not enough specialised staff in this area."
"We need to ensure that people working in residential homes are properly qualified to treat older people with mental health problems"
Nell believes that, most importantly, people need to be educated to understand more about mental ill-health, especially as it's a "hidden" illness.
"My own experience of depression taught me to be sympathetic towards people who suffer from mental illness - and it
is an illness. This is what people don't understand and often they think you're acting the goat. But you wouldn't treat someone who had cancer or a broken leg like that, would you? People with mental health problems need to feel sure that they'll get the proper attention and that their illness will be properly understood. You can't stick a bandage on a mental health problem."
An extract from Nell's talk "Mental Health and Well-Being: An Older Person's View" "Many older people don't even think about having rights and it's sometimes very hard convincing a frail elderly person that if things are not to their satisfaction they have a right to complain about it. Sometimes so many people are trying to get things right 'by the book' that they forget we're all just people. We, the older people, have our thoughts and feelings and sometimes these get overlooked in the rush. So I say:
'Please look at us and listen - don't look through us.' |
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