Mental health and aging : programs and evaluations

Researchers describe effective mental health programmes for the aged, which are designed both for traditional settings and for more innovative circumstances. They describe and evaluate ways to help chronic and acute mental disorders, to provide preventative measures that concentrate on such factors as work or family, and finally ways to help train mental health workers. Each paper presents a clear rationale and conceptual foundation for the programme, describes the evaluation research designed to test it, and the results of that evaluation. The result is an intelligible presentation of a variety of programmes. `Researchers can use this text as a starting point in defining problems that need to be overcome in evaluation of services for older adults. With these purposes in mind, it is highly recommended.' -- Clinical Gerontologist `Anthropologists interested in aging or community mental health should find this collection valuable. The authors are context-sensitive; target groups for differential treatment are clearly specified; programs and evaluations are ingeniously designed to accomplish much with very little expenditure; and the quality of the articles is high. In terms of innovative programming for the elderly, this collection is the state of the art.' -- Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Vol 16 No 1, November 1984 `(This book) is a thorough and innovative text that covers various traditional and nontraditional mental health programs, interventions, evaluations, and training issues that can be applied in a variety of settings...This is a useful, applicable, and worthy contribution to the gerontological literature. It is practical, informative, and should increase the effectiveness of geriatric services. Overall, the book is interesting and well written. It is a good beginning and, hopefully, should be pivotal in encouraging more advanced interventions, services, and evaluative programs for the elderly.' -- The International Journal of Aging and Human Development, January 1985 `...the unique value of the various schemes described lies in the fact that they have all been critically evaluated...This book offers a diverse range of evaluative strategies which could readily be adapted for use in the UK and for this reason alone, it deserves careful study.' -- British Journal of Psychiatry, December 1984