Looking Ahead to the Dementia Journey
Reprinted from the Recovery: Living Your Bestish Life issue of Visions Journal, 2022, 17 (4), pp. 16-17
A Gateway to Intergenerational Connection
University students and seniors forge friendships and lifelong learning at Gateway Lodge in Prince George
Seniors
Changing life situations like retirement, losing partners or other important people, changing roles, or physical health problems can all impact mental health and well-being. Mental health problems can affect people at any age, but they are often untreated or undertreated among alder adults.
Where can older adults find help for mental health concerns?
Mental health concerns are a serious concern at any age, and everyone deserves help and support. If you’re concerned about your mental health, you can:
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Talk to your family doctor or go to a walk-in clinic
Vancouver’s Geriatric Crisis Service
A psychiatric geriatric emergency is an event with a psychiatric/behavioural component, involving an elderly individual, requiring a rapid response to ensure the safety of the individual and others, that can’t be managed initially in the current environment. The Geriatric Crisis Service exists to fill gaps in the emergency and crisis services to the psychogeriatric population through improved communication with the client and caregiver.
Listening to the North Okanagan
In 1999/2000 as part of a mental health system review conducted in what was then the North Okanagan Health Region (NOHR), CMHA BC Division completed a Regional Seniors’ Mental Health System Progress Report. Based on the information gathered, local Progress Report steering committees identified strengths of the regional seniors’ mental health system and areas for improvement.
Salmon Arm Mental Health Service Elderly Services Program
The development of community mental health services for adults over 64 years of age followed the implementation of services for the 19–64 age group. The elderly mental health service beacon was not switched on until the mid to late 1980s, when the Ministry of Health, Mental Health Division launched a program to address the specific mental health service requirements of this group. In Salmon Arm, our first exposure to the program was through educational workshops.
Helping the Forgotten Pioneers
Mental illness in old age has many different faces, and consequently many different ways of assisting these people have evolved. The Elderly Services Team has targeted help to seniors with severe behavioural problems and to the caregiver systems of these seniors.
The Upper Island Geriatric Outreach Team
The Upper Island Geriatric Outreach Program provides a multidisciplinary, comprehensive, individualized psychiatric consultation service for the residents and health care providers of North Vancouver Island.
Elderly Outreach Service
The Elderly Outreach Service (EOS) is an interdisciplinary community mental health program for seniors that started as part of the Victoria Health Project in 1989. The program serves the Greater Victoria area of BC including the southern gulf islands, Salt Spring, Galiano, North and South Pender, Mayne and Saturna — a region where about 19% of the population is over 65 years of age.
