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Point of View – Generational Competence: A Conceptual Framework for Aging in America
Two major demographic trends will unfold in America during the first half of the 21st century. Minorities will grow from 29% to 47% of the American population, and older adults (65+) will increase from 13% to 20%, becoming roughly as large as the population of children and adolescents under 18 for...
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Senior Peers Provide Companionship to Homebound: New York City Program Addresses Social Isolation in Older Adults
Individuals of any age group benefit from being socially connected: having friends, outside activities and people to talk to. Older adults, especially those with a mental illness, potentially have more difficulty remaining connected because it is easier for them to gradually lose their social...
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A Family Member’s Journey into the Depths of Bipolar Disorder
Only a few short years before leaving his cat and clothes in the covered alleyway, next to the dumpster behind the deli on 2nd Avenue, Bob was an accomplished plastics engineer. His parents, brother and sister were living back east, and his favorite aunts, an uncle and cousin lived a couple of...
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Principles for Promoting Inter-Group Relations Among Adolescents Through Group Work
Group work is a wonderful way of reducing prejudice and bigotry, promoting inter-group relations and enhancing ethnic group identity in adolescence. With its emphasis on mutual exploration and discovery, group work is very well suited to address these issues. The following are seven principles for...
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Sheridan Hill House: An Alternative Residential Model for Older Persons with Serious Mental Illness and Medical Conditions
In the context of recent national research findings that people with serious mental illness have a significantly shorter lifespan than the general population, the mental health community has directed much attention to addressing this disparity. Integrating mental health and health care has become...
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Aging with Optimism in FEGS Behavioral Health Residential Programs
Growing old in America today carries a different connotation than it did in the past. The elderly are no longer settling for aging gracefully, rocking chairs, and permitting family members to decide how they will spend the remainder of their lives. Instead, striving for a youthful appearance and...
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Planning Ahead for Difficult Health Care Decisions
During recent debates over healthcare legislation the term “death panels” was thrown around at a regular interval, conjuring up ideas of bureaucrats meeting in secret to decide who would live and who would die. Despite the ominous title and political imagery it provoked, “death panels”...
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Serving the Mental Health Needs of Homebound Older Adults
As our population continues to age, it is not uncommon for many of us to have an older neighbor who has become homebound and disappeared from view. Maybe once they were an active part of the community, but now as a result of life changes associated with aging, such as declining health or the loss...
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Support for Older Adult Peers
The Baltic Street, Advocacy, Employment, and Housing, Inc, Geriatric Peer Advocacy Program may be the only peer to peer program in New York City that offers services to seniors that have psychiatric disabilities. The program has been in existence since 1998 and although it is a small program, over...
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The Economics of Recovery: System Reform
New York State Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s Medicaid Redesign Team gathered an impressive list of suggestions to stem the growth of New York’s 50+ billion dollar Medicaid program. I was particularly impressed with their adoption of the 80/20 concept developed by business marketers in the 70’s....
