HELPING OUR SENIORS
.......Making Mental Health Services a Priority
....Imagine being physically frail, with no family still living or available to help you. How tough would that be to cope with your day-to-day activities? Now imagine you also have a mental illness, such as debilitating depression or paranoia. Would you even seek help?
....Nearly 20 percent of older adults experience some significant symptoms of mental illness. Most of those, about two-thirds, suffer in silence, without the treatment that could potentially improve the quality of their lives. ......Aging & Independence Services has the Senior Team, which is made up of licensed social workers and psychiatric nurses who are dispatched to evaluate older adults who may be having a mental health crisis. The Senior Team members determine if the person is a danger to himself/herself or others, or gravely disabled. Then they secure the appropriate treatment. ......County Mental Health, a division of the Health and Human Services Agency, has recently contracted with a nonprofit agency, Heritage Clinic, to work in partnership with the Senior Team to provide longer-term mental health services for older adults. The mental health care managers will follow clients through psychiatric treatment, if needed, and provide outpatient therapy and counseling. The care managers will also assist clients to secure resources, such as transportation and housing. ......Funding for part of the Heritage Clinic contract comes from the Mental Health Services Act (Proposition 63), the state measure that taxes personal income over $1 million to expand mental health services for all ages. As one part of the Prop. 63 expenditures, San Diego County saw the need to reach out to seniors who become isolated as a result of depression and other mental health problems. San Diego County also has a high rate of suicide among older adults, particularly among Caucasian men. ......One of the chief goals of the Mental Health Services Act programs is to prevent crises by early intervention. The County is in the process of applying for additional funding for services that will help identify early on when a senior might be at risk of developing a mental illness. This isn’t easy when so many older adults are reluctant to discuss mental health issues with even close family members, friends. ......Heritage Clinic staff will be working to educate the community about these issues. The outreach efforts will include going to different cultural groups. There will be satellite offices, so the services can be more accessible. Heritage Clinic has been providing similar services for the Los Angeles Department of Mental Health since 1984. For more information about Heritage Clinic, see www.heritageclinic.org or call (619) 233-3381. ......“We continue to seek ideas for ways to make our nutrition dollars stretch farther and reach more people,” Rick says. “We hope to see much better participation as a result of the new approaches we want to implement in the next four to five years.” |
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