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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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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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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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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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Barriers to Accessing Mental Health Care for Older Persons with Depression
Early in my career, I took my oldest daughter to her first dentist appointment. Making small talk, the dentist asked me what I do. I told her about my research on barriers to care, the stigma surrounding mental illness and interventions to improve treatment participation for older adults. As she...
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Mental Health in The Elderly: Boomers Coming of Age
According to the National Institute for Mental Health in England (2005), “The presence of Mental Health problems [for the elderly], is a strong independent predictor of poor outcomes, such as increased mortality, length of stay, institutionalism, and resource use.” In North America an...
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I’m Still Here: Engagement as Treatment for Dementia
A few years ago, I was conducting training for staff in a long-term care facility in Australia. It was a two-day training program, focusing on the use of the Montessori-based Activities Programming (MAP). I have been conducting research on the use of Montessori educational methods as a means of...
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Older Adults: The Hidden “Sandwich” Generation
No one signs up ahead of time to become a caregiver, yet millions of Americans today are caregivers. The Family Caregiver Alliance’s definition of caregiving states that the group of caregivers is composed of, “Anyone who provides assistance to someone else who is, in some degree, incapacitated...
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Older Consumers and the PROS Model: A Growing Challenge
In 2011 the post-World War II “baby boom” generation starts turning 65. With this change it is expected that the census of elderly people diagnosed with a mental illness will also increase. It is projected that by the year 2030, the number of older adults diagnosed with a mental illness will...
