Supporting the Behavioral Health of Older Adults: Evaluating a Multi-Site, Multi-Actor, Multi-Agency Initiative
Sponsor
Funding for this project was provided by the Oregon Health Authority contract # 159418. IRBApproval; Thiswork was approved by the Portland State University Institutional Review Board (approval # 206791-18).
Published In
Journal of Applied Gerontology
Document Type
Citation
Publication Date
12-24-2021
Abstract
Policymakers often overlook people living with physical disabilities and older adults’ behavioral health (BH) needs. Older adults experience alarmingly high rates of mental illness and substance use disorders, which often intersect with neurocognitive challenges. Emerging evidence suggests the SARS-COV-2 pandemic has exacerbated these disparities. BH needs amongst older adults and people living with physical disabilities have major implications for policy and service delivery. While a multitude of local interventions to support BH exist, few state-level programs focus on this population. In 2015, Oregon established the Behavioral Health Initiative for Older Adults and People with Physical Disabilities (referred to as the Initiative) with this specific purpose. A multi-year evaluation of this Initiative suggests several important improvements have occurred. Yet, barriers remain that hinder optimal service provision and enable siloed aging and BH services between agencies. The findings indicate ways the Initiative can leverage initial successes to further support this population.
Rights
Copyright © 2022 by Southern Gerontological Society
Locate the Document
DOI
10.1177/07334648211059155
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/37037
Citation Details
Stodola, A., Kyler-Yano, J. Z., Hasworth, S., Winfree, J., & Dawson, W. D. (2021). Supporting the Behavioral Health of Older Adults: Evaluating a Multi-Site, Multi-Actor, Multi-Agency Initiative. Journal of Applied Gerontology