NEWSFLASH: NYS Assembly includes $2.5 million for geriatric mental health and chemical dependency services in its one-House Budget Bill. No word on the Senate yet. There is no assurance on the outcome, so...
KEEP THE PRESSURE ON! Contact Key Legislators
Meetings with legislative leaders in Albany have made it clear that there is considerable interest in providing additional funding for mental health and chemical dependency services demonstrations but that there is tremendous competition for what legislators believe will be very little additional funding this year. It is critical to keep the pressure on.
We urge you to continue sending in letters. Send in thank you letters to the Chairs of the Aging and Mental Health Committees in the Assembly acknowledging their support of geriatric mental health. And send letters to their counterparts in the Senate urging them to support funding.
Click on and print the following letters - Letter to Senator Golden, Letter to Senator Morahan, Letter to Assemblymember Dinowitz, Letter to Assemblymember Rivera, and Letter to Assemblymember Ortiz. You can simply fill out your name and addresses, sign below, and mail them in. We also encourage you to put them on agency letterhead and send them on behalf of your organization.
The budget season is in full swing and your letters are critical for us to get funding put into the NYS budget for geriatric behavioral health. Please send in the letters as soon as possible and let us know when you do!
Thank you for your support!
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Con Reform
The Department of Health is revising the certificate of need process for ambulatory care that includes behavioral and chemical abuse services. The reason for the change is that, currently, many agencies have administrative responsibility for licensing and certifying, as well as for Medicaid payments. Providers offering significant behavioral health services must also be certified by the Office of Mental Health, the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, and the Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services. DOH says the changes will ensure that the correct agency has lead authority for surveillance, that rules are clear to providers and that mental health services are better integrated with primary care for patients with multiple co-morbidities. The CON rules are effective April 1. The department says that it will continue to oversee the CON process for hospital outpatient departments and community clinics primarily delivering medical services. The agency also promises more reforms after the 2008-09 budget passes. The revised guidelines are available at http://www.health.state.ny.us/
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GMHA Upcoming Events
May 22, 2008 - Save the Date: 2nd Annual Geriatric Mental Health Alliance Conference
BRIDGES TO BETTER MENTAL HEALTH:
Merging Research and Practice for Improved Integration of Services to Older Adults
Location: Hotel Pennsylvania, 7th Avenue at 33rd Street New York, NY
Keynote: Robert Butler, M.D., Physician, Gerontologist, Psychiatrist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. President and CEO, International Longevity Center USA, NY; Professor of Geriatrics at the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development, Mount Sinai School of Medicine; Founding Chairman, Dept. of Geriatrics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine; Founding Director, National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Health.
More details to come shortly.
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GMHA Conference: Vendor and Sponsorship Opportunities
We invite you to join us in support of our 2nd Annual Geriatric Mental Health Conference by displaying materials as a vendor or sponsoring the event.
Vendors will be able to display their material throughout the conference. Sponsors will be listed as such in the conference material as well as receive recognition throughout the event.
Click here to view the vendor and sponsor prospectus for more information, including fees.
We hope that you will consider either being a vendor or a sponsor of the event.
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Drugs Cuts
The latest revisions to the executive budget brought outcries from hospitals and issuers this week, but New York's pharmacists are fine with the new proposal to wring $19 million more in savings from the EPIC program. The budget will require prior authorization or prescriptions not covered by Medicare Part D and will push the use of generics in the EPIC program. "We support this," says Craig Burridge, executive director of the Pharmacists Society of the State of New York who notes that most EPIC members are covered by Part D. State Medicaid spending son pharmacy services would reach $1.4 billion in 2008-09 without the proposed cuts.
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Testimony on Elder Abuse and Mental Health
Risa Breckman LCSW, Assistant Professor of Gerontological Social Work in Medicine and Director of Social Work Programs and Education in the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology at Weill Cornell Medical College recently submitted a testimony on behalf of the Alliance to the NYS Assembly Standing Committee on Aging. This was the only testimony focusing on the mental health needs of elder abuse victims. Please click here to read more.
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Federal Funds Available to Transport Elderly
NYS Dept. of Transportation (NYSDOT) recently announced that applications for Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Section 5310 grants will be distributed beginning February 15. The federal funding will be available for bus purchases by non-profit organizations and certain public bodies that transport elderly individuals and individuals with disabilities.
The program is open to private, non-profit organizations incorporated within the state; public bodies in rural counties approved by the state to coordinate services for the elderly or individuals with disabilities; and public bodies in rural counties that certify that no non-profit corporations are readily available in the area to provide these services.
For further information, please email mailto:mhaas@dot.state.ny.usor call (518) 457-8335. Applications can also be downloaded from the NYSDOT website at http//www.nysdot.gov/public-transportation, under the link for Federal Transit Funding Programs, Section 5310 Elderly and Disabled Program. All completed applications must be submitted to NYSDOT for final review by June 1, 2008.
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GEC Survey
The Consortium of New York Geriatric Education Centers is committed to providing relevant, high quality trainings for its students. As they move forward with planning they want to hear from you about the types of trainings you want and need to expand your personal and professional knowledge and that of your staff and co-workers. Please take a few minutes to fill out a brief survey by clicking on the link below. All responses must be in by March 14, 2008.
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NYSDOH Seeks Proposals to Improve Care to Medicaid Recipients w/ Complex Needs
NYS Health Department Seeks Proposals to Improve the Care of Chronically Ill Medicaid Patients
The NYS Department of Health has announced the availability of $10 million in funding under the state's Medicaid program for providers to demonstrate innovative and replicable approaches to address the complex health needs and social barriers to care for the chronically ill beneficiaries. This initiative, being undertaken by the State's Medicaid program, hopes to improve quality of care for some of the most complex patients in NYS.
The Request for Proposals is on the Department of Health website at http://www.nyhealth.gov/funding/. A bidders' conference was be held on Feb. 26. Proposals are due on April 14.
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Other Upcoming Events
March 12, 2008 - Fifth Annual SoHo Art Auction hosted by the Mental Health Project of the Urban Justice Center. The event will be from 6:00-9:00 pm at Poltrona Frau, 145 Wooster Street (between Prince and Houston). All proceeds will support the Mental Health Project's advocacy for low- income and homeless New Yorkers with mental illness.
Contributing artists include Richard Serra, Nan Goldin, Anders Goldfarb, Dina Bursztyn, Eric Pelka, Christopher Colvin, Kate Temple, Michael Lorenzini, Kate Temple, Laura Lienhard, and many more. Please buy tickets at: http://mhp.kintera.org/artauction or preview art and bid online at: http://www.mhpartauction.org/
March 19, 2008 - The Future of Gerontological Social Work in NY: Licensing & Workforce Development hosted by NASW & Fordham University Graduate School of Social Services. The event will be from 8:30am - 1:00pm at the Pope Auditorium at Fordham University.
Click here for flyer.
March 20, 2008 - Double Whammy! (It's Not Just About Mental Health Anymore) hosted by the NYC Dept. of Health & Mental Hygiene and Office of Consumer Affairs. Come hear a family doctor talk about how to self-advocate for routine medical care because your physical health is as important as your mental health. The event will be from 1:00pm - 3:00pm in the Auditorium at 125 Worth St., 2nd Floor (between Lafayette & Centre St.)
March 26-30, 2008 - Aging in America 2008 Conference hosted by the American Society on Aging and the National Council on Aging in Washington DC. One of the largest gathering of diverse, multidisciplinary professionals from the fields of aging, healthcare and education, along with business leaders from across the US, this five-day conference in our nation's capital will be an opportunity to network, discuss the issues and leave with new ideas, insights and connections that will make you more effective in serving older adults. For more information, please visit the conference website at http://www.blogger.com/www.agingconference.org/index.cfm or call 1-800-537-9728
April 17, 2008 - April 17, 2008 - Second Annual Brain Injury in the Community Conference: Giving Voice to the Silent Epidemic sponsored by ICD, AHRC- NYC, and the Brain Injury Association of NYS. The conference will include a major focus on treating co- existing psychiatric, medical and substance abuse disorders of individuals with brain injury, as well as challenges faced by substance abuse, mental health and homeless service professionals in serving clients with unidentified brain injury. Speakers will include Jean Langlois, ScD, MPH, Senior Epidemiologist, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC, and Wayne Gordon, PhD, Professor, Department of Rehabilitation, Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The event will be held from 8:30am - 4:00pm at the OMRDD auditorium, 75 Morton St., NY.
May 28, 2007 - Disability and Aging: New Perspectives and Emerging Challenges Symposium sponsored by the NYU Silver School of Social Work. The symposium will be held from 9:00-1:00pm at the Kimmel Center for Student Life. For more information on this series, please click here.
June 4, 2008 - Save the Date: Assessment and Treatment of Pain in Cognitively Impaired Older Adults presented by the Schervier Center for Research in Geriatric Care. Keynote speaker is internationally known expert in pain and pain management, Keela Herr, PhD, RN, FAAN, Professor and Chair of the Adult and Gerontological Nursing Area at the University of Iowa. Other featured speakers include: Steven Grenell, MD, Jeffrey Nichols, MD, Terry Altilio, LCSW and Susan Caccappolo, LCSW. The event will be held from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm at Manhattan College in Riverdale, New York. The registration fee is $50.00. For more information, please contact Dr. Paulette Sansone at 718-432-1939 or e-mail paulette_sansone@bshsi.org.
June 17-18th, 2008 - Save the Date: 12th Annual Aging Concerns Unite Us Conference at the Desmond Hotel and Conference Center, Albany, NY.
Institute for Senior Action spring 2008 session begins on Thursday, March 20th.
More and more often, occasions arise when we need to lobby for improvements in our homes, our neighborhoods, or our city. Effective organization is a key to success. For 30 years, the Joint Public Affairs Committee (JPAC) of JASA has been organizing older adults throughout metropolitan New York to become active advocates working effectively for senior and community needs. In the spring of 1994, JPAC established a unique 10-week leadership training program called the Institute for Senior Action. The course sharpens the skills of long-time activists, and serves as a vehicle for recent retirees and others to become more involved in civic affairs and social action. Learn about federal, state & local government, public speaking and a wide array of other subjects. To become more engaged in civic affairs and social action contact Bola Aribidesi, IFSA Project Director, at 212-273-5261 or via e-mail at baribidesi@jasa.org.
September 13, 2008 - Save the Date: The Paradoxes of Aging: Psychotherapy with Older Adults A conference sponsored by The Met Chapter of the New York State Society of Clinical Social Workers and co- sponsored by the Geriatric Mental Health Alliance and Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service.
October 23-25, 2008 - Save-the-Date: State Society on Aging of New York 36th Annual Conference This year's theme is: Geriatric Mental Health: Practice, Research, Education, and Policy and the conference will be held at the Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga Springs, NY.
Culturally Competent Practice: Integrative Model Serving Asians and Asian Americans Colloquium Series
The Institute of Community Health and Research (ICHR) and NYU's Silver School of Social Work (SSW) present a weekly colloquium series to discuss topics such as Mental Health and Psychosocial Adjustment, Work with Asian American Elders, Death/Dying and End of Life Services, and others. All sessions will be taught by community experts or SSW faculty. Interested participants meet Thursdays, 11:00am - 12:50pm in the 1st Floor Parlor, WSN Building, Silver School of Social Work, Ehrenkranz Center, One Washington Square North.
Please click here for more information.
Culture Change In Nursing Homes Workshops
The Long Term Care Community Coalition invite advocates, consumers, and caregivers to attend a free workshop on "Culture Change." Culture change is a growing movement to transform nursing homes from an institutional setting to a more individualized setting. A culture change nursing home focuses on providing a home-like environment that is truly centered on the resident and those closest to him or her - caregivers and families. Decision-making is placed as close to the resident as possible. Resident privacy, dignity and autonomy are key priorities.
There will be three workshops held in March. The workshops are free, thanks to a generous grant from the NY State Office for the Aging. Thursday, March 13, 1:30pm-4:30pm, AARP, 780 Third Avenue, 33rd Floor, NY City.
Friday, March 14, 10am-1pm, Westchester Community College - Mt. Vernon Extension, 175 Gramatan Ave., Room 207, Mt. Vernon.
Wednesday, March 19, 1:30pm-4:30pm, AARP, 780 Third Avenue, 33rd Floor, NY City.
If interested, please email sara@ltccc.org or fax to (212) 239-2801 your name, title, organization, address, email, and phone number, and your choice of workshop date.
Educational Activities for Healthcare Professionals Focusing on Older Adults sponsored by the Consortium of New York Geriatric Education Centers. Programs include reinventing senior centers and senior programs, new trends in discharge planning, falls prevention and more. Programs are from 8:45am -4:30pm and registration is $50.
Educational Seminar Series at Service Program for Older People (SPOP) This training opportunity features SPOP clinicians who have extensive experience with older adults and mental health. It is offered to the professional geriatrics community and all who work with seniors. Each seminar is held at: 302 West 91st Street at West End Avenue, New York, NY. Seminar fee: $15. Discount for 3 or more attendees from the same organization. Space is limited. Please register in advance by mail or online here or call: 212-787-7102 ext.515.
For topics, dates, and registration information, click here.
HIV/AIDS and Older Adults Trainings The AIDS Community Research Initiative of America (ACRIA) and the Council of Senior Centers and Services (CSCS) is offering a citywide HIV training program funded by the New York City Council. These free trainings will help senior service providers address HIV prevention issues and understand better the needs of those aging with HIV. Each seminar is held at various locations.
For dates and registration information, click here.
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In the News
House Approves Bill on Mental Health Parity
Robert Pear
The New York Times
March 5, 2008
WASHINGTON - After more than a decade of struggle, the House on Wednesday passed a bill requiring most group health plans to provide more generous coverage for treatment of mental illnesses, comparable to what they provide for physical illnesses.
The vote was 268 to 148, with 47 Republicans joining 221 Democrats in support of the measure.
The Senate has passed a similar bill requiring equivalence, or parity, in coverage of mental and physical ailments. Federal law now allows insurers to discriminate, and most do so, by setting higher co-payments or stricter limits on mental health benefits.
"Illness of the brain must be treated just like illness anywhere else in the body," said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California. Supporters of the House bill, including consumer groups and the American Psychiatric Association, said it would be a boon to many of the 35 million Americans who experience disabling symptoms of mental disorders each year.
Insurers and employers supported the Senate bill. Many opposed the House version, saying it would drive up costs.
President Bush endorsed the principle of mental health parity in 2002. But on Wednesday, the White House opposed the House bill, saying it "would effectively mandate coverage of a broad range of diseases."
Both bills would outlaw health insurance practices that set lower limits on treatment or higher co-payments for mental health services than for other medical care.
Click here to continue reading.
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Addiction among seniors often goes untreated
Justina Wang
Staff writer
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.com
(February 17, 2008) - The gray only shows in Ted Gaffney's mustache. His shoulders hunch only slightly forward in his smooth, self-assured walk. Everything else, from his deep, throaty slang, his sparkling diamond earring, his tales of drunken weekend parties, screams of a younger man.
At 63, he looks around group meetings at Strong Recovery and finds he's the oldest in the room.
The kids in here, the teens and the twentysomethings talking about their drug cravings, are sudden flashbacks to his younger days but not exactly mirrors of his past. Unlike them, his stories bear the markings of age and a staunchly different mindset formed in an era when addictions were secret vices, not admitted problems.
"I thought that's what you do. You drink and you do drugs. You go to work the next day with a hangover, but you make it through the day."
In treatment centers around the area, Gaffney's tales of growing old, though not quite common, carry no shock value. Increasingly, counselors say they're meeting aging baby boomers who have clung to decades of drug addictions, widows and widowers whose nightly drinks with spouses turned into three or four or five after loved ones passed, elderly patients who think prescription drugs work better when they increase their dosage. Together, they mark what experts believe is an alarming, hidden tide of older adults addicted to drugs and alcohol.
Like many of them, Gaffney waded through an addiction he never recognized. For 33 years, he devotedly worked the weekday 9-to-5s in a Kodak shipping and receiving warehouse, then dedicated dark hours of the weekend to drunken escapades with buddies who had introduced him, decades earlier, to marijuana and cocaine. He was a grown man with a house in Rochester, a wife and four daughters, and he stumbled home regularly past 3 and 4 a.m.
It was a lifelong habit, one he never considered needed an endpoint, even when the wrinkles began to set in. To the contrary, when he retired from Kodak at 53, the weekend parties slipped into the weekdays, and drugs and alcohol filled his suddenly routine-stripped life like never before.
There was simply: "Too much time on my hands. Didn't have nothing else to do."
Hidden epidemic
Geriatric substance abuse has generated almost no attention until recent years, and few statistics accurately reveal the problem. In 2005, the latest date with data available, 29,254 addicts older than 60 were in treatment programs throughout the country. Those who lead area treatment programs report varied numbers of older adults, ranging from a handful in smaller community groups to dozens in many hospital-based sessions. But there are "a lot more of them who should be in treatment who are not," said Patrick Seche, clinical coordinator at Strong Recovery, a University of Rochester Medical Center program where about 15 of the 250-plus participants are older than 60. The nonprofit group Lifespan estimates 23,000 seniors in Monroe County have some type of chemical dependency. Based on the number of aging baby boomers, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration projects 1.9 million people 60 and older will have drug and alcohol addictions by 2020.
Click here to continue reading.
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Primary Care Doctors May Overlook Elderly Patients' Mental Health
Science Update
February 25, 2008
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Doctors spend little time discussing mental health issues with their older patients and rarely refer them to a mental health specialist even if they show symptoms of severe depression, according to an NIMH-funded study published December 2007 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
People age 65 and older represent 12 percent of the U.S. population, but they accounted for a disproportionate 16 percent of suicide deaths in 2004. Improved mental health screening in primary care may improve detection and treatment of mental disorders before drastic consequences, such as suicide, can occur.
To determine how doctors deliver mental health care to their elderly patients, researcher Ming Tai-Seale, Ph.D., of Texas A&M Health Science Center and colleagues analyzed 385 videotaped visits of 35 doctors with 366 of their elderly patients. The researchers identified topics discussed and how much time was devoted to each topic. Mental health- related topics occurred in 22 percent of visits, typically lasting about two minutes. An average visit lasted about 16 minutes overall. The majority of that time was spent discussing biomedical and other topics.
Efforts to treat or provide care for a mental health issue varied widely among the doctors participating in the study. Most fell into one of three patterns of care: 1) listening to the patient for an extended period of time and referring him or her to a mental health care specialist; 2) gathering information but providing inadequate treatment; or 3) being dismissive toward the patient and his or her emotional distress, and failing to follow up.
Click here to continue reading.
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New Generation Gap as Older Addicts Seek Help
Jane Gross
The New York Times
March 6, 2008
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - All is peaceful and orderly on the older adult unit at Hanley Center, where substance abusers over the age of 55 are spared the noisy swagger of addicts half their age across the campus.
In their separate oasis, alcoholics and prescription drug abusers of a certain age do not curse at one another, raise their voices in anger or blast music at midnight. They don't brag about their macho pasts or stage drama-queen breakups on the communal pay phone. They show up on time for therapy groups.
"We have different health issues, different emotional issues, different grief issues," said Patrick Gallagher, 66, who was treated here for a dual addiction to pain medication and alcohol. "We need more peace and quiet and a different pace."
Across the country, substance abuse centers are reaching out to older addicts whose numbers are growing and who have historically been ignored. There are now residential and outpatient clinics dedicated to those over 50, special counselors just for them at clinics that serve all ages, and screenings at centers for older Americans and physicians' offices to identify older people unaware of their risk.
Addiction specialists and organizations for the elderly anticipate a tidal wave of baby boomers needing help for addictions, often for different substances and with different attitudes toward treatment than the generation that came before them. Federal data shows the shifting demographics: In 2005, 184,400 Americans who were admitted to drug treatment programs - roughly 10 percent of the total - were over 50, up from 143,000, or 8 percent of the total, in 2001.
The same report, by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, foresees 4.4 million older substance abusers by 2020, compared with 1.7 million in 2001 - numbers that are "likely to swamp the current system," said Deborah Trunzo, who coordinates research for the agency.
Click here to continue reading.
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Benefits Checklist for Older Adults
The Sadin Institute on Law & Public Policy and the Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging & Longevity of Hunter College/CUNY recently released their newly revised Benefits Checklist for Older Adults. Presented on two 11"x17" easy-to-read wall charts, the Benefits Checklist provides users with essential information on 16 major health and income programs, including the benefits provided, eligibility criteria, income and resource limits, plus phone numbers and websites of agencies that handle applications. The Benefits Checklist covers income and health programs for all counties in New York State, and is updated annually.
Click here for more information and order form.
