WASHINGTON — Only 2.5% of adults aged 65 years and older use outpatient mental health services compared with 7.1% of adults aged 18–64 years, Bradley E. Karlin said at the annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America.
These results, based on data from the 2001 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, show that older Americans continue to underuse mental health services, despite their need for them, said Mr. Karlin, a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at Texas A&M University, College Station.
“One of the most disconcerting findings in the mental health literature is the underuse of mental health services by the older population,” he noted.
Mr. Karlin and his coauthor, Michael Duffy, Ph.D., of Texas A&M University, conducted a logistic regression analysis to identify factors relating to unmet mental health needs and use of outpatient treatment. Older adults identified fewer mental health problems than did younger adults in the survey and had lower rates of serious mental illness. However, only 9% of older adults with serious mental illness and 10% with mental health syndromes used outpatient mental health services.
“Virtually nothing is known about predictors of mental health care in the elderly population. We don't know who the health seekers are,” Mr. Karlin said. A greater understanding of the role of mental health in aging in the general population may increase the use of outpatient services, and older adults who hear about a friend's positive experience may be more likely to try outpatient care themselves, he added.
Overall, no differences appeared in the extent to which mental health treatment improves ability to manage daily activities, suggesting that older adults who do use outpatient mental health services derive at least as much benefit as younger adults, Dr. Karlin noted.