Professional shortages of geriatrically trained social workers pose a barrier to mental health care for older adults. Integrating graduate social work interns into primary care settings may increase the availability of trained social workers. However, few studies provide guidance on how to develop an interprofessional healthcare placement focused…

Purpose: We describe and evaluate a project designed to pilot test an evidence-based clinical intervention for assessing and treating depression in older adults in rural primary care clinics. Project ADAPT--Assuring Depression Assessment and Proactive Treatment--utilized existing primary care resources to overcome barriers to sustainability…

A training curriculum on mental health and aging was developed and disseminated to 32 natural caregivers throughout a frontier state using a train-the-trainer model. Those certified as trainers included social workers, religious professionals, volunteers, long-term care employees, nurses, home health workers, and professional and informal…

Purpose: The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) is widely used in clinical and research settings to screen older adults for depressive symptoms. Although several exploratory factor analytic structures have been proposed for the scale, no independent confirmation has been made available that would enable investigators to confidently identify scores…

Describes sub-acute diagnostic and treatment nursing home program for difficult to manage older adults with medical and psychiatric illness. Notes that assessment and discharge can be completed within seven months, and that among sample population studied, almost equal percentages were discharged to state institutions, remained in the study home,…

The Telephone Conference Network, sponsored by The Pennsylvania State University's Coordinating Council for Health Care, is designed as a cost-effective format for providing inservice training in geriatric mental health for individuals who serve the elderly. Institutions which subscribe to the Telephone Conference Network are equipped with a…

Depression is a prevalent and serious problem among nursing home residents. Nursing home staff members are gatekeepers for mental health treatment for residents, but may know little about depression and its management. We evaluated a didactic workshop for nursing home staff on depressive symptoms and management. Results for 58 staff participants…