More males over the age of 85 years are reported to commit suicide than in any other age group in Australia, and at more than five times the rate of females in the same age group.

And up to 83 per cent of older people who commit suicide suffered from depression. These worrying statistics are reported in the latest Research to Practice Briefing survey from the The Benevolent Society. At a recent launch of the study, the Federal Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Mark Butler, said that more needs to be done to integrate health and aged care services and to get out the message that mental illnesses like depression and anxiety are not a normal part of ageing. Depressive symptoms are thought to occur in up to 50 per cent of older people living in residential aged care...