PEOPLE over the age of 65 with mental health problems are being misdiagnosed and receiving a second class services because of baffling rules, according to experts.

The claims are the result of a survey of more than 160 people in Scotland, which found the age group is less likely to be seen by experts or have their medication reviewed.

The Age in Mind project, led by the Scottish Mental Health Co-op, which questioned more than 60 over-50s suffering from mental health problems, also found people whose conditions have not been diagnosed are unlikely to be given help.

Read more: Child health in Scotland 'amongst worst in Europe'

Project facilitator Angela Dias said many health boards

automatically switch patients into “older adult” services when

they turn 65.

She said: “Some people then find appointments harder to come by or therapies, psychiatrists and nurses harder to see. You could call it a second class service,” she said. “There shouldn’t be restrictions on the basis of age.”

Others with undiagnosed conditions such as depression might find these overlooked, she added. “It is very likely that this happens. I think there is a risk it just gets dismissed as part of old age.”

Most health boards operate an “older adults’ service” within mental health services, but the project – which is part of the See Me campaign to tackle the stigma surrounding mental health issues – said its cut off point of 65 is arbitrary and inexplicable.

Read more: Child health in Scotland 'amongst worst in Europe'

The Age in Mind project, led by the Scottish Mental Health Co-op SMHC and part of the See Me anti-stigma campaign, interviewed more than 160 people aged over 50 who have been affected by mental health problems. Researchers found the support people get often decreased significantly once they reached 65. Some were given less access to expert nurses and psychiatrists, or lost places they had previously had in mental health services.

Meanwhile those with new conditions were less likely to get the psychological therapies they might need, while many also missed out on social security benefits they should have been entitled to.

Campaigners say many older people are at increased risk of mental health problems, due to bereavement or isolation, but some feel they are simply written off.

Four years ago 68 year old Dianna Manson, 68, said she was advised by a consultant

psychiatrists that she simply was not valuable enough to be offered expensive treatment.

“He told me the cost that would be too much given what I would be able to give back to society,” said Ms Manson, who is a lay representative on medicines watchdog SIGN.

“People have a right to services but a lot of them feel they really don’t count. We are still functioning autonomous beings.”

Read more: Child health in Scotland 'amongst worst in Europe'

Ms Manson says she did not complain about her consultant’s comments for fear of being branded a trouble-maker but, ironically she fought hard to be moved into older adults’ services. “ Little did I realise, you get to speak to a doctor less often and I found they were more interested in potential dementia than my enuring mental health condition.”

A reception at the Scottish Parliament today will hear calls for a change to remove the cut-off age for people to receive mainstream mental health services.

Keith Robson, chief executive of Age Scotland, said: “The thought that any medical condition would receive worse treatment because of your age reveals a truly worrying way in which older people are treated We should never be side-lining medical conditions as “old-age”.”