Older Adults Programs
Targeted Capacity Expansion (TCE) Grant Program:
Meeting the Mental Health Service Needs of Older Adults
In FY 2005, the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) announced the availability of $13.2 million in grant awards to provide mental health services to older adults in need. These grants will help community-based organization increase capacity or improve the array of services available to people 60 years and older who are at risk for or are experiencing mental health problems.
Award grantees are:
Arizona
Chiricahua Community Health Center, Elfrida -- $400,000 per year to provide a culturally-based intervention program that addresses behavioral health prevention of depression, both related and unrelated to diabetes and dementia, in residents over the age of 60. The project is designed to increase social interaction, provide mentally stimulating programs and physical exercise.
Valle del Sol, Inc., Phoenix – $398,800 in the first year and similar amounts in subsequent years to target Latino elderly, ages 60 years and older, at risk for or experiencing mental health problems in southwest Phoenix and the communities of Surprise and El Mirage. The program will use evidenced-based models of outreach prevention, and treatment targeting seniors with depression or at-risk for suicide. Consumer-driven and culturally adapted services will be provided to Latino seniors.
Colorado
Jefferson Center for Mental Health, Arvada– $395,340 in the first year and similar amounts in subsequent years to provide services based on the “Gatekeeper” model in a five county area, Jefferson, Boulder, Gilpin, Clear Creek and Broomfield. The service model includes a single point-of-entry call center and outreach teams hired and trained to be sent on referred home visits of elderly adults in need.
Hawaii
University of Hawaii, Honolulu -- $400,000 per year to increase the capacity of the state to provide specialized and enhanced mental health and social services to people over the age of 60. Hawaii will provide education and support to caregivers and service providers dealing with older adults with serious mental illnesses and offer enhanced clinical services to older adults with serious mental illnesses through the use of an evidence-based, community-based geriatric mental health treatment team.
Massachusetts
Cambridge Public Health Commission -- $400,000 per year to expand access to underserved elderly residents in the Metronorth area of Boston through the efforts of the Cambridge Health Alliance. The project will expand accessible mental health services to functionally-homebound elderly persons with serious mental illness in the four-city region of Malden, Everett, Revere and Medford utilizing the evidence-based practices in place in the adjoining cities of Cambridge and Somerville. The program will also integrate mental health and primary health care.
New York
Nachas Health and Family Network, Inc., Brooklyn – $400,000 per year to address the needs of Holocaust survivors and their older adult children. Project Chai will address the needs of persons ages 60 and older who live in three sections of Brooklyn that have heavy concentrations of Holocaust survivors. The project will enhance outreach, engagement and referral services needed by isolated, withdrawn Holocaust survivors and their aging children by adapting the Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) model. Assertive Community Treatment is an evidence-based mental health services delivery model for delivering key medical, rehabilitative and social services to persons with severe and persistent mental illness in the community.
Ohio
Cuyahoga City Community Mental Health Board, Cleveland -- $376,536 in the first year and similar amounts in subsequent years to increase access and capacity through collaboration of mental health service providers, the county department of senior and adult services and adult guardianship services. The program will serve older people in crisis or who are homeless and will engage seniors with mental health needs through outreach services. The program will adapt several evidence based treatment practices for helping family members learn more about mental illness and helping them respond appropriately to the needs and behaviors of family members with mental illness, and helping mental health consumers learn to self-manage their illness and work toward recovery.
Tennessee
Centerstone Community Mental Health Center, Nashville – $400,000 per year to deliver mental health outreach, treatment and prevention services for adults ages 60 and older in Davidson County. The manualized evidenced-based model for treating elder depression known as the IMPACT model (Improving Mood Promoting Access to Collaborative Treatment for Late Life Depression) will be implemented for seniors as well as enhanced electronic medical records.
Texas
Longview Wellness Center, Inc., Longview – $399,940 in the first year and similar amounts in subsequent years to develop a community-based service delivery system and infrastructure that will work through area organizations to reach people over 60 at risk for mental illness. The project is designed to improve the coordination of care between physicians and mental health practitioners and implement a fully integrated treatment program through a primary health care clinic.
Montrose Counseling Center, Inc., Houston – $400,000 per year to provide peer outreach, education and counseling by adults ages 60 and older, as well as professional counseling and case management for 250 vulnerable adults ages 60 and older in each of the three years.
Virginia
Boat People, SOS, Inc., Falls Church – $400,000 per year to provide access to mental health services for approximately 3,000 Vietnamese elders in Northern Virginia, including some 1,000 torture survivors and their spouses. Few of these have been able to access mental health care because of the lack of linguistically and culturally-appropriate services. Home-based mental health care, peer support services, and clinical counseling will be provided.
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