Abstract
The older adult population has been a growing concern in the global
context calling for attention to aging processes, supportive measures
and health care policies. In the Philippines, the population of older
people is accumulating swiftly with a faster growth compared to the
total population of the country. Thus, this calls for a closer attention
on the overall wellness and the mental health of older adults that are
more crucial in comparison to other ages in one’s lifetime. Generating a
database search strategy for the last 10 years focused on the mental
health of older adults, retrieved articles from APA PsycNet, ProQuest,
SAGE, EBSCOHost and PubMed Central electronic databases were synthesized
guided by the set inclusion and exclusion criteria and utilizing the
PRISMA flowchart of the record selection process. This narrative
synthesis rendered the Mental Health Orientations of Older Adults
to illustrate an integrated framework to understand mental health and
older adults. The findings of this research synthesized a portrait on
how older adults give credence to their mental health in various
concerns and needs which they directly and indirectly experience. These
will be valuable in considering age-specific mental health needs aligned
with the three orientations that will support Philippine law provisions
on mental health (RA11036 or the Mental Health Act) and on senior
citizens (RA9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizen Act) with the continuing
aim of providing access for mental health services and integrated
strategies for the promotion of mental health.