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The NYSPA Report: The Mentally Ill Elderly in Prison: A Behavioral Health Crisis
A recent editorial in the New York Times titled: “Nursing Homes Behind Bars” notes that “after declining for three years in a row, the nation’s stubbornly huge prison population has crept back up again” and “aging inmates make up the largest and fastest-growing segment of the American...
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Integrated Treatment for Successful Aging
Contrary to the ageist assumptions of modern society, it is possible to age well. This being so, physical and behavioral health providers ought to ask themselves what they can do to promote successful aging. Part of the answer, of course, is just to provide good treatment for physical and...
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Integrating Health and Behavioral Health Services: A Personal Perspective on One Agency’s Experience
In 1984, at the very first senior staff meeting I attended when I arrived at The Bridge (the non-profit mental health and substance abuse rehabilitation agency in New York City) the spotlight was on client healthcare issues. Our then part-time psychiatrist had recruited a heroic primary care...
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Point of View – Elder Suicide: A Public Health Challenge of the Elder Boom
By the age of 88, Mr. W.* had lost most of his closest friends to death or dementia. His children had moved to other parts of the country. He saw them and his grandchildren rarely. He had retired from his long career as a teacher without finding new interests. But he and his wife were happy. They...
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Point of View: Address the Mental Health Needs of People with Dementia and Their Caregivers
Ms. S. began to experience confusion when she was 84. She was a friendly woman and active in local politics. One day when she was on her way to a meeting at her political club, she forgot where she was going and got lost. It happened again and then again. She began to make excuses for not going out...
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How Will Health Care Reform Affect Older Adults with Mental Health Problems?
Even though the recent health care reform legislation substantially neglects mental health concerns, older adults with mental health conditions will benefit from it in four ways. First, they will benefit from improved coverage of physical health care, which is of considerable importance to older...
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Taking Stock: Mental Health in the Workplace
Mental illness has a broad reach in the workplace. From corporate boardrooms and your accountant’s desk to the fields of star athletes, this set of diseases can take many forms. It doesn’t discriminate either. Mental illness affects men and women, rich and poor, entry-level staff to senior...
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From the Publisher: Reflections on My Father’s Golden Years
In recent years there has been an explosion of interest and research to discover the cause and ways to successfully treat Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease. There are new medications to stave off brain decline and if already in decline, to improve the brain’s cognitive ability. There are also...
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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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The Medical Care and Psychosocial Needs of Older Adults
More than half of the older adults who receive behavioral health care receive it from their primary care physician. There has been much recent interest in the medical or health home model that provides comprehensive care, and in which a primary care physician (PCP) leads a team, which may include...
