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Jan 2009
GMHF and AAGP to Award $10,000 to the Service Program for Older People, Inc. for Exemplary Service and Outreach
The Geriatric Mental Health Foundation (GMHF) and the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP) have named the Service Program for Older People, Inc. of New York City as the winner of the GMHF/AAGP Deirdre Johnston Award for Excellence and Innovation in Geriatric Mental Health Outreach Services. The Foundation and Association are presenting this award to SPOP, Inc. for the organization’s dedication and exemplary service to Manhattan’s older adults needing mental health services, including those who are homebound.
With 36 years of experience providing mental health services, SPOP is a leader in delivering care to older adults where they are most likely to access that care, at 12 sites in New York City and in their clients’ homes. SPOP serves 1,000 older adults each year, 60-70 percent of whom suffer depression, major depression, or anxiety. SPOP’s services to homebound older adults include individual supportive counseling, psychiatric supervision of medication management, and family counseling. For each client, a SPOP social worker and psychiatrist conduct a mental assessment and develop an individual service plan.
SPOP Executive Director Nancy Harvey, LMSW, commented, “As the population of the frailest older adults grows, new solutions for how to provide them with services are required. By providing mental health counseling to older adults in their homes, SPOP’s program enables homebound older adults to receive treatment that they would otherwise never receive. Our program, targeted to the specific needs of each client, prevents more severe mental health problems and in many cases, total isolation.”
The GMHF and AAGP announced the creation of the new Johnston Award for Excellence and Innovation in Geriatric Mental Health Outreach Services in March 2008 and invited applications. “The 17 applications the selection committee received came from programs across the country, both urban and rural, and confirm that there is tremendous interest in serving mentally ill elders who still live at home but can’t get to a mental health professional for treatment,” explained Burton V. Reifler, MD, MPH, chair of the GMHF/AAGP selection committee. “SPOP rose to the top of this impressive group by virtue of the quantity and quality of its outreach activities,” said Reifler, who is the Kate Mills Snider Professor of Geriatric Psychiatry at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
This award for geriatric mental health outreach services is made possible by a generous gift from Arnold H. Snider of New York, a long-time advocate for health care causes, and is named in honor of geriatric psychiatrist Deirdre Johnston, MBChB, MRCPsych, in gratitude for the care she provided to Kate Mills Snider, Mr. Snider’s mother. SPOP will be presented the $10,000 award during the Presidential Plenary and Awards Dinner of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry’s Annual Meeting on March 5 in Honolulu, Hawaii. SPOP’s Nancy Harvey will present information about the award-winning program on March 6 during a special AAGP conference session.
Burton Reifler, chair of the Johnston Award selection committee and a member of the GMHF board of directors, directs the Kate Mills Snider Geriatric Outreach Program at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, which has provided evaluation and treatment for over 100 patients with complex psychiatric and medical problems, and will be presenting the findings from this initial group at AAGP’s Annual Meeting in March. Reifler commented, “The most common conditions the team sees are dementia and depression. It is very gratifying to be able to bring services into these patients’ homes because otherwise their mental health needs would go unmet.”
The Geriatric Mental Health Foundation (www.GMHFonline.org) was established by the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry to raise awareness of psychiatric and mental health disorders affecting older adults, eliminate the stigma of mental illness and treatment, promote healthy aging strategies, and increase access to quality mental health care for the elderly.
The American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (www.AAGPonline.org) is a national association representing and serving its members and the field of geriatric psychiatry. AAGP’s mission is to enhance the knowledge base and standard of practice in geriatric psychiatry through education and research and to advocate for meeting the mental health needs of older Americans.
To learn more about AAGP’s Annual Meeting, March 5-8, 2009, in Honolulu, Hawaii, please visit www.AAGPmeeting.org.
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