Program addresses mental health concerns for seniors

Just a decade or so ago, providing age-specific mental health care geared toward older Americans was a fringe discipline at best, Dr. John White said.
Today, White's peers in the psychiatric community recognize the value of focusing on the specific issues and needs of senior citizens. It's a growing area of focus and, now, it's available at Girard Medical Center.
White serves as medical director for the new Senior Behavioral Health Services department. Beth Simpson is program director. She oversees the day-to-day operations of the department.
Developing a program to address the mental health needs of senior citizens has been in the works for almost two years, according to Kenny Boyd, CEO of Girard Medical Center. Planning started in response to in-house surveys of the hospital's medical staff that identified the need, he said.
“Getting it open and providing a service that was missing in the community is what we were looking for,” Boyd said. “This will give (local physicians) a service their patients need we didn't have locally.”
The first patient was admitted to the program on Dec. 19, the first day it was accepting admissions. And that, Boyd said, emphasizes the need his medical staff knew was out there.
“Having an admission on our first day, and subsequent admissions since then, shows there's a need for the program,” Boyd said. “It's a two-way street: We're providing a service to our community and that's the main goal. Hopefully it's going to prove to be beneficial to the organization as a whole as well.”
White is a psychiatrist and Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine who's been in practice in the southeast Kansas area for more than 22 years. Originally from Kansas City, he received his medical degree in Iowa and completed his residency at the University of Missouri–Kansas City campus.
He's on the faculty of the University of Kansas Medical School and is a staff physician at Girard Medical Center and Mt. Carmel Regional Medical Center in Pittsburg. For the past two years, he was working to set up a similar geriatric psychiatric service unit elsewhere.
Simpson works for Diamond Healthcare Corporation, a Richmond, Va., management company that specializes in the business end of departments similar to the GMC unit. Before coming to Girard, she worked in a similar position with a geriatric unit in Leavenworth.
She holds a master's degree in exercise physiology and recreation therapy and has worked in the healthcare field for the past 25 years.
The Senior Behavioral Health Services Department is split into two separate programs: A 10-bed in-patient facility and a structured out-patient program. Patients will stay in the hospital for an average of 10-days in the in-patient program, during which they're evaluated both medically and psychiatrically, to determine the best way to address their needs, Simpson said.
In addition to psychiatric services, patients in the in-patient program and their families will have access to a social worker, physical and occupational therapy specialists and the hospital dietitian. The idea is to look at all aspects of a patient's healthcare and lifestyle needs to determine if they're able to return home or will have to go to an assisted living center or nursing home when they leave the hospital.
The out-patient program involves both individual and group therapy in what Simpson described as a “very intensive” program. Patients could spend as much as 11 hours per week in the program, she said.
The programs “help people develop coping skills and support from other people who share their common experiences,” White said. “How can we find ways to reduce stress in everyday life? Someone else in the (group) therapy setting may have experienced similar situations and can offer solutions.”
There are several issues specific to older Americans that are best addressed in a setting such as the new department, that can't be addressed as effectively in a mixed-age setting, White said. Seniors respond differently when undergoing therapy with fellow patients half their age, for example.
“We try to address this group's needs, because they have been underserved,” he said. “And there are other services available for younger patients that are having psychiatric illness.”
Simpson agreed: “Why here and why now? There was no place to get in-patient treatment without going to another state. When you have somebody who's 70 years old, sent that far away from their family environment, they're not going to have as much family involvement.”
Another major focus of the program will be treating individuals in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. While there's currently no cure for the disease, recognizing symptoms early and working with the patients could improve their quality of life, White said.
“We're not saying we have a fountain of youth,” White said. “But we're very interested in catching people early so we have a better chance of maintaining their cognitive function or even improving their cognitive function.
“When we can encounter them with the early warning signs, maybe their symptoms won't become as severe, as fast. We don't have a cure, but maybe we can reduce the severity (of the disease) or lengthen the time they can stay at home.”
Working with other physicians in the area to help them become more aware of the special needs of their senior patients will be another benefit of the program, White said. And, in the future, Girard Medical Center and the Senior Behavioral Health Services department could become a training ground for the next generation of healthcare providers.
“Our mission is to be a resource for earlier information to physicians,” White said. “And we have a component in association with a medical school, we're going to have medical students and we hope residents involved in the program as part of their medical training.
“What's happened in geriatric psychiatry is the needs of the older psychiatric patient are being focused on with more clarity than in the past. The difference is, now, we're able to use the most modern aspects of medicine to serve the elderly.”

OPEN HOUSE
The public is invited to tour the new Senior Behavioral Health Services wing at Girard Medical Center on Friday, from 7 to 9 a.m. Juice, coffee and other refreshments will be served. A ribbon cutting for the new wing is scheduled for 7:45 a.m.