Page 19 - Healthcare News Nov/Dec 2022

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SENIOR LIVING CONT’D Home-field Advantage
WestMA
By KAILEY HOULE
ass ElderCare Aims to Bring Mental Healthcare to Seniors
dults age 65 and older make up almost 17% of the U.S. population, and nearly one in four older adults has a mental-
grants to support older adults and persons with disabilities, the organzation’s new Elder Mental Health Outreach Team is meant to address older adults’ behavioral-health needs that are typically not met through more traditional resources.
Older adults living in the community face added challenges in accessing behavioral-health services, including transportation, social isolation, financial burdens, fewer mental-health professionals with expertise treating older adults, and complica-
tions of co-morbid cognitive and medical-health illnesses.
Through a referral system and a grant provided by the Massachusetts Assoc. for Mental Health, Bronner explained, a licensed clinical social worker and geriatric nurse practitioner will provide care without the need for insurance, using a model that isn’t used through traditional insurance or coun- seling agencies: offering mental-health support to older adults in their homes or at community sites.
“They would meet at the senior center or in a person’s home or at a family member’s — wherever the older person feels most comfortable is where
health condition. Those with anxiety disorders and depression, which in many cases emerged
or worsened amid the isolation of the pandemic, are often undiagnosed and go untreated, leading to severe complications, such as hospitalizations and ‘silent suicides,’ which account for 18% of all suicide deaths.
WestMass ElderCare (WMEC) is partnering with local senior centers and Councils on Aging (COAs) to help fight this ongoing and worsening epidemic.
“A lot of older adults were very isolated during COVID, and I think they were, out of all the age groups, more hesitant to leave their home and even have people come into their home,” said Brenda Bronner, director of Home Care Programs at WMEC. “They know how to manage their basic needs, but the depression and anxiety that we saw with a lot of younger people was also true of some of the older adults that we see.”
Through state and federal funding, as well as
Brenda Bronner says the Mental Health Outreach Team is more important now than ever.