Psychogeriatric Outreach To Rural Families: The Iowa and Virginia Models

Abstract

Elderly residents of rural areas are at significant risk for mental health problems, yet have less access to mental health services. Thus, most mental health problems among rural elderly remain either undiagnosed or untreated. We describe two models of mental health outreach programs to rural elderly in Iowa and Virginia, serving demographically, culturally, and epidemiologically different populations in geographically and economically dissimilar regions. Programs are compared on the basis of initiation, community partnerships, target population, target region, clinical disciplines involved, coordinating discipline, referral sources, operational model, initial home assessment, care planning, sustainability, cost, patient demographics, and primary and secondary diagnoses. Outreach programs are argued to be effective models of delivering services to geographically and/or socially isolated elderly populations. The experiences of our programs, though limited to rural populations, may be of relevance to any outreach program attempting to serve elderly presenting with or at risk for mental health problems.