IGSW Addresses a Crisis in Care: Providing Effective Training in Mental Health and Aging

By Kathy Kuhn Despite advances in mental illness treatment, older adults are still not receiving much-needed care. Serious treatable mental health and substance abuse problems have gone untreated, either because they have not been identified or because they have been misdiagnosed. A major reason is a lack of training in aging and mental health. Health and mental health professions often fail to provide basic curricula in aging in general and geriatric mental health and substance abuse in particular, according to a report by the Alliance for Aging Research. Indeed, the lack of an available, adequately trained workforce of mental health professionals in aging contributes to needless suffering and unnecessary costs. IGSW is addressing this crisis in care through provision of a number of training programs in mental health and aging. The programs are based on the latest in gerontological and practice research, current training methods, and cutting-edge educational technology, in online, face-to-face, or "blended" formats. The easily implemented courses have been shown to build or enhance necessary skills and to be cost-effective. In this first installment of a series, IGSW News highlights one of these programs The Massachusetts Elder Mental Health Training Collaborative In 2008 and 2009 the Executive Office of Elder Affairs in Massachusetts funded a statewide mental health and aging training program designed for practitioners in aging and in mental health who provide services to older adults. The program is innovative in its combination of face-to-face and online learning and because it brings together the often separate worlds of mental health and aging and joins with an already existing statewide coalition to achieve the goal of change through training. Training was offered in six regions across the state using a "blended model" of online and face-to-face training. This program included three IGSW online courses, Geriatric Assessment, Mental Health and Aging, and Substance Abuse among Older Adults. The online training was supplemented by four face-to-face sessions. To date, over 280 aging and mental health practitioners have completed the training. Nearly all participants (94.4 percent) agreed or strongly agreed that the training expanded their knowledge and understanding of the topic areas significantly. The majority of participants (92.3 percent) felt that the material presented in IGSW's courses was very relevant and useful to their professional activities. All participants (100 percent) would recommend the program to their colleagues. As Patricia O'Flynn, education and outreach coordinator at Samaritans of Boston, " I would highly recommend taking an IGSW blended model course. I have been working in the eldercare field for over 10 years, but I still learned a great deal from our knowledgeable instructor, my classmates, and the online lessons."