By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, July 16
Many elderly Kansans are not getting the mental health services they need. They”re driving up the state”s health care costs, too.
A
three-year study
by the University of Kansas” School of Social Welfare recently found that nearly one-third of the people surveyed in assisted living facilities had some type of mental illness
not including dementia
and were not receiving services.
“A lot of people just don”t know about the resources that are available
when they”re available,” said Rosemary Chapin, director of the school”s Office of Aging and Long-term Care.
“The other thing is services aren”t always available, especially in the rural areas,” she said. “A lot of these elders have a hard time leaving their homes and yet most community mental centers don”t have in-home services.”
According to the study, only half the state”s community mental health centers had professional staff trained in caring for the elderly.
These shortfalls, Chapin said, drive up the state”s health care costs.
“We were able to document a relationship between elders not receiving services and their leaving assisted living facilities for higher levels of care
nursing homes,” she said.
Oftentimes, these moves were prompted by “depression and anxiety exacerbating other health problems,” Chapin said. “So not only is the individual”s quality of life impaired, the state ends up spending more money because nursing homes, obviously, are a more expensive level of care.”
According to the U.S. Census, there were 2.7 million Kansans in 2005 and 13 percent of them were ages 65 and older.
More services needed
At a budget briefing in Topeka last week, advocates for the elderly urged Department on Aging Secretary Kathy Greenlee to increase the agency”s spending on mental health services.
“We must design mental health programs that meet our seniors” needs,” said Craig Kaberline, executive director at the Kansas Area Agencies on Aging Association.
Sheli Sweeney, a policy analyst with the Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas, proposed getting the University of Kansas Medical Center to add psychiatry to the fields of study eligible for low-interest loans and scholarship support in exchange for practicing in the state”s rural areas.
Sweeney also called for spending:
*
$90,000 on an initiative aimed at educating primary care physicians on the mental-health needs of the elderly;
*
$60,000 on a toll-free hotline that senior citizens could call for help in finding services;
*
$47,400 for a pilot project aimed at figuring out how best to build collaboration between aging and mental health programs and physicians.
Closing the gaps in services won”t be easy, said Dave Geist, executive director at the Southwest Kansas Area Agency on Aging in Dodge City.
“When it comes to mental health there”s a stigma that seniors really struggle with,” he said. “You may get them accustomed to the idea that they need services, but they will not be seen going into a mental-health center. They just won”t
because of the stigma.
“Then, the issue you”re left with is that the mental-health centers don”t have the resources to do in-home services.”
Geist said the mental-health discussion is long overdue.
“This is something that gets very little attention. It gets covered up a lot,” he said. “But it”s going to take a lot of big-picture, outside-the-box thinking to get this resolved. Business-as-usual won”t do it.”
The next Kansas Department on Aging meeting for soliciting public input on its fiscal year 2009 budget will be from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m., July 18, in the Sedgwick County Public Works basement conference room, 1144 S. Seneca, Wichita.
-Dave Ranney is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. He can be reached at
dranney@khi.org
or at 785-233-5443, ext. 128.