Barbara K. Shore

Overcoming Barriers to Serving the Aging/Mental Health Client

This paper presents a model, based upon a series of state-level initiatives in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, for improving coordination between the aging and mental health systems to better serve elderly persons with mental health problems. The mental health needs of the elderly are discussed and service delivery obstacles - systemic, individual, and agency/staff - are reviewed and synthesized. Policy initiatives by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that relate to these issues are presented as a case study, with a focus upon a series of regional conferences held around the state for providers in the aging and mental health networks to encourage better coordination of services. The process and outcomes of these conferences are discussed, together with an analysis of the implications for practice, policy, and teaching.

The development and evaluation of training standards for the aging network and academia: I. Background and rationale.

This is the third of four papers describing a cooperative project which set out to develop training standards for Area Agency on Aging management and casework/counseling personnal in the aging network in Pennsylvania. In this paper conclusions and implications of the project are presented and some of the key policy issues in the use of the standards for personnel management and curriculum development are discussed. A model for the development of educational materials for use in the aging network is presented.

Interfacing Mutual-Help and Mental Health Delivery Systems: Implications for Policy and Administration Clirriclila

In the past fifteen years, major policy and structural changes have occurred in the nation’s mental health service systems. The accelerated movement of patients from mental institutions into the community, coupled with recent legal decisions establishing patients’ rights to treatment, has helped to create unprecedented national awareness of the tremendous level of unmet human need (Wittman, 1977).