"A lot of mental health treatments we develop through research don't work as well as expected when they are applied in the community," says Yeates Conwell, professor of psychiatry and the project's principal investigator. "Often it is because the social context is not adequately considered. Aging services providers are the experts in that area, and we in health care need to tap into their expertise. Together, we can design the best approach to care for older people with mental illness."
The new partnership that includes community support from Eldersource Care Management Services, Lifespan, and the Catholic Family Center, is called the Senior Health and Research Alliance, or the SHARE Alliance. Codirectors of the alliance are Ann Marie Cook, president and chief executive officer of Lifespan, and Irene Coveny, senior vice president for program development and services for the Catholic Family Center, who says many elderly served through her agency show signs of untreated depression. "Through this partnership we hope to develop a new model of care, which will reduce late-life depression and improve the quality of lives," Coveny adds.
Research has shown that almost 15 percent of people 65 and older have a diagnosable psychiatric disorder other than dementia, and some experts suggest those numbers could be much higher. There also are indicators that fewer than half of older adults with clinically significant depressive symptoms who seek care from a primary care physician receive a diagnosis or treatment for their condition.
"It is not uncommon for an older person to feel sadness," says Conwell. "But when the symptoms or depression interfere with one's quality of life, it is something we can help them with. . . . Our long-term goal is to improve the well-being of seniors in our community through an innovative combination of health and human services."
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Alliance tackles depression in the elderly
he National Institute of Mental Health has awarded the Department of Psychiatry $2.57 million to develop a community-based system to identify and treat older adults with depression and other mental illnesses. The project is the first comprehensive effort to join social services and mental health providers to develop approaches to care for the elderly.
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