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GRANTS

 

Improving Older Adult Mental Health Services In Hawai‘i

 

The MHSRET Program was recently awarded a $1,200,000 grant over a three year period (2006-2009) 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.

This project developed in cooperation with the Department of Health's Adult Mental Health Division and agencies specializing in services to older adults, will increase and evaluate the capacity of the State of Hawaii to provide specialized and enhanced mental health and social services to people over the age of 60 who have a serious mental illness. It will do this primarily by providing education and support to their caregivers. This project has four goals:

  • Educate family members, providers, and other paid caregivers of adults over 60 who have serious mental illnesses about mental illness and its optimum treatment;
  • Improve caregivers' skills in meeting the mental health needs of older adults;
  • Expand specialized mental health services for older adults within the state funded mental health system;
  • Increase the partnerships formed between the traditional older adult service system and the state funded mental health treatment system.

All four goals have implications for infrastructure development essential to the process of planning service enhancements for older adults who have serious mental illnesses. This population has traditionally been overlooked by the mental health care system and such neglect, in the face of an ever-increasing population of older adults, cannot continue.

The first three goals will also involve the development and delivery of direct care, primarily on the island of Maui, as a part of their attainment. This will be accomplished through the adaptation and implementation of an established mental health evidence-based practice known as family psychoeducation and the adaptation and adoption of a service delivery model, the community-based, multidisciplinary, geriatric mental health treatment team.

These efforts will be made as a part of a comprehensive statewide effort to establish linkages between the traditional mental health and older adult service systems. Historically, both systems have operated independently of one another leading to the neglect of the mental health and social service needs of older adults who have serious mental illnesses. It has also led to the neglect of the mental health needs of older adults who are experiencing unidentified and undiagnosed mental illnesses.

Evaluation of the success of the project will include documentation of grant activities and an outcome evaluation across three levels. The three levels include assessment of improvement at the individual level (e.g., improved quality of life and ability to function), the program level (e.g., increases in provider expertise, number of skilled service providers and increased referral options), and the system level (e.g., improved inter-system coordination, increases in the number of people served).