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Senior Citizens Less Likely Than Younger Adults to
Get Needed Mental Care
Nov. 23, 2004 – U.S. Senior citizens – those 65 and
older – are unlikely to receive the mental health treatment they need.
Younger adults are three times more likely to get the needed care,
according to a recent national study by researchers at Texas A&M
University.
Drawing upon data from the 2001 National Household
Survey on Drug Use and Health, the researchers found that older adults
were three times less likely than younger adults (individuals aged
18-64) to receive outpatient mental heath care.
Only 2.5% of older adults throughout the nation
reported utilizing any outpatient mental health treatment in the year
prior to the survey, compared to seven percent of younger adults.
Although older adults were found to have lower rates of mental illness
than their younger counterparts, even those with serious mental illness
(SMI) were highly unlikely to receive treatment. Only one in ten older
adults with SMI received any outpatient mental health care, a rate
substantially lower than that for younger adults.
While older adults utilized mental health services
at substantially low rates, the study also found that those older adults
that receive treatment typically benefit considerably from services, as
much or greater than all other age groups.
"Older adults reported significant benefit from
mental health treatment," said Bradley E. Karlin, first author of the
study, "refuting public and professional misperception that mental
health interventions are less effective with older individuals."
The study is one of the few recent investigations
of mental health need and service utilization among older adults, and
the only known study to provide national data on subjective treatment
outcome. Karlin presented the study at the annual scientific meeting of
the Gerontological Society of America.
In an article published in the October 2004 issue
of Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, Karlin and co-author
Michael Duffy identify significant barriers to geriatric mental health
service use and provide recommendations and directions for improving the
current delivery system.
"We are failing our nation's elderly population
when it comes to meeting their mental health needs, which are often
undetected and under-treated" said Karlin. Unfortunately,
under-treatment of mental health problems in later life leads to
profound social, economic, emotional, and medical costs.
"The results of this study are striking and suggest
that greater effort be devoted to increasing mental health service
availability and accessibility for elderly individuals. Failure to do so
will risk a crisis in geriatric mental health in light of the impending
growth of the aging population and future projections of increased
prevalence of mental disorders. The good news is that mental health
treatments can and do help," said Karlin.
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