This presentation will explore current challenges (and an emerging solution) to providing effective mental health care for older adults, including: Workforce shortages within care provider field; Mental health care affordability; Disparities in access to mental health care among disparate populations; and Continuing emphasis on the “traditional” cognitive needs of older adults. Licensing, legislative elements, Medicare reimbursement and outdated systems for defining mental health for older adults fall within these challenges. Solutions to the issues of access, licensing and reimbursement will be presented as part of a working model using a gero-psychological approach to the symptoms of mental illness in older adults. An overview of the specific hurdles faced by the increasingly diverse population of older adults is included, with accompanying (if fledgling) solutions.

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Handouts

• Handout - Scrambling to meet the need