As we've discussed,
ageism greatly impacts the treatment that an older adult faces in seeking
treatment for a mental health condition.
However, what are
some of the other barriers that are keeping the older population
from receiving vital services? Here are some of the most common:
Overuse
of institutions
Limited
access to services
Uneven
service quality in both institutions and the community
Very
limited integration of mental health, health, and aging services
Very
limited capacity to serve cultural minorities
Lack of
adequate family support
Stigma,
ageism, and ignorance about mental illness and its treatment
Workforce
shortages
Vast
financing problems – both of amount and of structure
Lack of
readiness to meet the mental health challenges of the coming elder boom
Part of the challenge to the social work community will be to continue to advocate for a better integration of aging services and mental health services. Expanded training programs for practitioners who want to serve the older population can help with both the issue of ageism and the issue of workforce shortages. Also, I would suggest specialized training for staff in every institution. Residents in nursing homes often have higher rates of depression, and staff are ill prepared to deal with the issues.
I think your right when you say all social workers need training in this field. Recognizing the need for mental health services for the elderly is key. If we are educated on the need for these services we would certainly advocate for more programs and utilization.
ReplyDeleteI agree that cultural and sexual minorities have been left out of the national discussions on aging and mental health. There is limited medical, mental health, and aging research on the LGBT population. Furthermore, there is also a severe lack of social services aimed specifically for this group. There needs to be greater public awareness and outcry for funding and growth with this population.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for your comments! And Lisa, I agree there is a real lack of services for the LGBT population, particularly in rural areas such as the one in which I work.
ReplyDeleteThose who live in rural areas such as 5CO really struggle with finding services due to the present geographical barriers. As social workers, we need to work towards moving services into rural areas.
ReplyDeleteThis post made me think about a project that I did for my policy class last term that focused on LGBTQ aging individuals. There are unique barriers for LGBTQ older adults that identify as LGBTQ. These barriers are present in mental health care, health care, housing, employment and isolation. Many current individuals today were raised in a time where homophobia and oppression against LGBTQ individuals was to such an extent that it was not physically or emotionally safe for many LGBTQ individuals to "come out." Thus, many aging individuals today have not come out to their family members or anyone in their immediate community, such as a retirement home or nursing home. Therefore, staff that work with these individuals need to be trained in cultural competency for working with this population. Similarly, there should be legislative advocacy that works to create sexual orientation and gender identity-specific anti-discrimination policies for all agencies working with aging adults.
ReplyDeleteOur fishbowl presentation made me to see how broken the system is in terms on the LGTBQ elderly and rural elderly population
DeleteI think health insuance has alot ot do with in in regards to the issues of fewer mental health providers and programs. Insurance often were considering that MH was not needed for people and costly for them to cover it so they wouldn't cover it or they made it harder for other proivders such as those listed above hard to get approval for it. But now we see a shift with all the healthcare reform from the Obama admistration. The reform and all state's Sgt. Gerneal are now ready and loaded to sue health insurance companies if they dont convert over all there policies and procedulars for MH victims and there families. I guess our country has really seen that social workers, theripst and psytrisrt are in need badly.
ReplyDeleteHey Cat, you make a really great point on the different and even more complicated challenges faced by LGBTQ aging individuals! Thank you so much for your insight--I agree that there are some unique barriers here and I'm glad you were able to do some more research through your policy class project. We are certainly in need of some anti-discrimination policies.
ReplyDeleteI think most people don't even realize that older persons have such a hard time getting quality mental health care. This reminds me of people are dual diagnosis and have multiple issues to address, the same is with persons who are aging with mental health issues. Their issues will be different than those young persons who need help. This is an opportunity for providers to educate themselves on the special needs of the aging population.
ReplyDelete