Big Picture, continued
Two Reports Summarize Current Research and Promising Practices in Addressing Mental Health and Substance Abuse Among Older Adults
“The majority of older adults with substance abuse or mental health problems do not receive the treatment they need,” according to an August, 2005 report from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Among Older Americans: The State of the Knowledge and Future Directions. “Unfortunately, the gap in services for older adults is even more pronounced in the are of prevention,” the report says, “…[which] has tended to reflect the common age bias that prevention applies to the young, but not the old.”
This report and a 2002 SAMSHA guide, Promoting Older Adult Health: Aging Network Partnerships to Address Medication, Alcohol, and Mental Health Problems, go a long way to helping communities understand the state of the art in designing effective and accessible mental health services for older adults.
Indicating that there have been “dramatic developments in knowledge” in the last 10 years regarding effective prevention and treatment of mental illness and substance abuse in older persons, the 20-page State of the Knowledge and Future Directions report provides a concise but comprehensive overview of current research:
- The prevalence and impact of substance abuse and mental health problems among older adults
- Co-occurring substance abuse and mental illness among older adults
- The impact of projected demographic changes
- Currently available services and services needed
- The rationale for prevention and early intervention
- Cost and reimbursement issues
- Medicare reimbursement issues
- Missing data and future directions.
Promoting Older Adult Health is an excellent companion to the State of the Knowledge and Future Directions report, providing profiles of 15 exemplary programs around the country. Each profile includes a description of the program, linkages with other organizations, evidence of success, resources and funding, lessons learned, and “exemplary activities.” The profiles are organized into sections based on the steps that service providers use to respond to substance misuse and mental health needs:
- Education and Prevention
- Outreach
- Screening, Referral, Intervention, and Treatment
- Service Improvement Through Coalitions and Teams.
Appendices to Promoting Older Adult Heath provide a wealth of information on national resources and organizations, as well as brief descriptions of 25 additional programs that offer promising practices.
To access the 2005 Knowledge and Future Directions report, go to www.samhsa.gov/aging/SA_MH_%20AmongOlderAdultsfinal102105.pdf. To access the 2002 Promoting Older Adult Heath guide, go to www.ncoa.org/Downloads/ACFB780.pdf.