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Health September 2012

Aid for Age

Little Help for Seniors’ Mental Health Issues

By Tait Trussell

There is little evidence or occasions of seniors as mass murderers. But the suicide rate for the elderly is alarming. Every day, 17 older Americans are so unstable they kill themselves...The IOM report said that just 131 post-doctoral positions are funded in training programs in geriatric psychiatry nationwide, and only 43 percent of these positions were filled last year.

Recent mass murders in a Colorado movie house and a Sikh temple in Wisconsin has brought the horrendous subject of mental illness and its tragic results to the attention and concern of all Americans. Although young men have been the typical perpetrators of killings of a bizarre nature with indications of insanity, as much as 20 percent of the elderly population deal with some form of mental conditions, according to a new study by the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP).

There is little evidence or occasions of seniors as mass murderers. But the suicide rate for the elderly is alarming. Every day, 17 older Americans are so unstable they kill themselves.

Some seniors have mental slippage. You’ve probably heard it said among some of your friends: “They finish each other’s sentences.” When long-married couples do this, it can be a way of one spouse filling in memory gaps of the other spouse because they sometimes can no longer complete the thought they want to express.

Helping a faulty memory is a natural process of caring, But it could delay the possible diagnosis of dementia. Or maybe it’s not dementia, but the interaction of medications that is causing a stumbling memory. Even dietary deficiencies are said to cause strange behavior sometimes.

When I forget something, my wife says, she believes I just wasn’t listening. It’s wryly called “selective listening.” Sometimes, however, I can’t remember a well-known name. It just can’t come to mind, although maybe it will later. Or some occasion in our past which my wife recalls, has evaporated from my memory. Some older couples think there’s nothing that can be done about it — an attitude more prevalent among the post-boomer generation because many elderly still believe so strongly in self-reliance.

“If a complete physical exam doesn’t uncover a hidden medical problem...tests could be ordered to see if a number of types of dementia is the problem,” according to Carole Bradley Bursack, editor of ElderCarelink. ElderCarelink employs proprietary profiling technology and web-based marketing techniques. It’s a leading provider of qualified lead generation services within the eldercare industry. ElderCarelink helps families identify the right type of care and services needed by an aging relative or friend.

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recently issued a report outlining the mental health and substance use workforce needs for the expanding elderly population. It documents the prevalence of mental health and substance problems among seniors. The report notes that the rate of specialized providers coming into the workforce is dwarfed by the pace at which the population is increasing.

Its current estimates range from 14 to 20 percent of the elder population who deal with mental health or substance abuse conditions, such as depression, dementia or psychiatric symptoms. The report emphasizes that “our respective disciplines are obliged to redouble efforts to ‘gerontologize’ the curriculum in our health professional programs....”

AAGP shares the IOM’s concerns about woefully inadequate recruitment to the field and the “potentially dire consequences for both the physical and mental health of older adults.” The IOM report said that just 131 post-doctoral positions are funded in training programs in geriatric psychiatry nationwide, and only 43 percent of these positions were filled last year.

Many seniors resist treatment for depression and other disorders. Their association with anything resembling mental illness is frequently formed by the mass media and popular culture. Often movie and TV portrayals of characters labeled as mentally ill are fearful sources of mental illness misinformation. The media rarely creates dramas of people coping with depression or anxiety who aren’t violent. Alternative TV programming could help educate the public about what mental illness is and how it can effectively be treated.

We’re not too old to get help, and the popular culture needs to wise up.

 

Tait Trussell is an old guy and fourth-generation professional journalist who writes extensively about aging issues among a myriad of diverse topics.

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