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When the Therapist Comes to You: A Model Home Visiting Program for Seniors
Sarah is 95 years old and is determined to live out her days in the small New York City apartment she has called home for over 60 years. Her walls are covered with four generations of family photographs, and her shelves are filled with books and mementos of her work as a teacher and travels with...
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We Must Advocate for Older Adults with Behavioral Health Conditions
As of this writing, the healthcare and behavioral health systems are facing unprecedented threats from proposed legislation to significantly roll back the gains achieved through the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Medicaid is also under threat, as the current legislative proposal attempts to alter its...
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A Behavioral Health Workforce for An Aging America
As efforts are made to improve America’s inadequate behavioral health workforce, the needs of older adults should be a central concern. By 2030, Americans over the age of 65 will become as large a portion of the population as children under the age of 18. But there is far more interest in...
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The Best We Can Do
This is a personal story told by a mental health professional. It is an easy story to tell because it is happening as I am telling it. It is the story of two women. These two women are 90 years old and have lived full and productive lives, lives consisting of a myriad of gifts, tragedy,...
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Integrating Mental and Physical Health for a Geriatric Population
As part of the growing attention and interest at all levels of government to advance geriatric mental health care, New York State enacted the Geriatric Mental Health Act in 2005. One of the law’s provisions authorized the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) to establish a geriatric...
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With Older Adults, The Work Continues
Working with older adults who struggle with substance abuse is extremely complex. Each individual has a different story to tell. Many older adults, who have used substances over the course of their life spans, often have a tremendous amount of shame, remorse, and sadness. Many of these individuals...
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Not-So-Grand Parenting
As a mid-70’s, semi-retired person, the problems I suffer with aging go hand in hand with the joys of being a grandparent – the latter compensating for the former, at least for a time. Recently, my wife and I as part of the Wellspring Institute conducted a series of counseling groups at a local...
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Substance Abuse and Misuse in Older Adults
Some years ago, we met with a group of mental health commissioners in upstate New York to raise awareness of the growing need to address problems of behavioral health among older adults as the baby boom becomes the elder boom. When we got to the topic of substance abuse, one of the commissioners...
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Psychological Considerations of Injury Management in Older Adults
Older adults suffer the same sorts of injuries as younger ones, however due to age-related processes are susceptible to more significant complications as a result of these injuries. These complications include the psychological, in addition to the physical. As mental health care practitioners,...
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Older Adults and Psychiatric Rehabilitation
In our youth-obsessed world, there is an unspoken assumption that when it comes to older adults and mental health, the recovery train has already left the station. After all, older people are stuck in their ways and are not able to make changes. They don’t have the same growth potential. They...
