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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Promoting mental health in rural elders
— a pilot program | | Author(s) | Suzy Gattuso |
| Journal title | Australasian Journal on Ageing, vol 22.2, June 2003 |
| Pages | pp 76-79 |
| Keywords | Mental health [elderly] ; Psychiatric treatment ; Rural areas ; Pilot ; Projects ; Australia. |
| Annotation | The development and trial of a small group format mental health programme, Healthy & Wise, in rural north-west Victoria, Australia is reported. Evaluation used both qualitative and quantitative assessment of outcomes. In this report, the focus is on assessment based on the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) self-administered to participants before the programme began, post programme, and at 6-month follow-up. There was a significant reduction in GDS score over time (pre/post) which was maintained at follow-up. The programme was successful in attracting participants experiencing a number of risk factors associated with poorer mental health (e.g. chronic illness). Adoption of programmes such as Healthy & Wise could extend the delivery of mental health services in rural areas in an economic and effective way, especially when smaller rural communities are ageing more rapidly than Australia as a whole and funding constraints continue. Given its success, it is recommended that the programme be tested with groups such as hostel residents and carers of people with dementia. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-030822207 A |
| Classmark | D: LP: RL: 4UC: 3E: 7YA |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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