Main description:

This book is a practical resource that will support the delivery of holistic mental health interventions in the primary and community care setting for older people. Primary care delivery is discussed in relation to both functional mental health problems, such as anxiety, depression, and psychotic and personality disorders, and acquired organic mental disorders of old age, such as dementia, cognitive impairments, and delirium. Careful consideration is paid to the complex relationship between mental and somatic health problems, as well as the impacts of multimorbidity and polypharmacy. Further topics include, for example, epidemiology, wider determinants of health, different care models, history taking, neurocognitive and capacity assessment, and pharmacological, psychological, and physical interventions.

The wider goals of the book are to support the development of community resilience and self-care in older people; to promote universal access and equity for older people in order to enable them to achieve or recover the highest attainable standard of health, regardless of age, gender, or social position; and to promote pathways to care for older people with mental health problems respecting their autonomy, independence, human rights, and the importance of the life-course approach. This book will be an invaluable resource for all professionals who work with older adults with mental health problems and those training in these fields including physicians, psychiatrists, family doctors, geriatricians, general practitioners, nurses, psychologists, neurologists, occupational therapists, social workers, support workers and community health and social care workers.

Contents:

Part I

1 Aims and concept of the Companion to Primary Care Mental Health in Older People

2 Epidemiology and the scale of the problem

3 Wider determinants of health

Part II

4 Frailty

5 Comorbidity and multimorbidity including stepped care and skill mix

Part III

6 History taking and assessment

7 Neurocognitive assessment

8 Promoting dignity in the care of older adults

Part IV

9 Pharmacological interventions in older adults

10 Psychological interventions in older adults

11 Exercise for older adults with mental health problems

12 Advocating better mental health care for older adults

Part V

13 Anxiety disorder in older adults

14 Bereavement in older adults

15 Bodily distress syndrome (BDS), bodily stress syndrome and health anxiety in older adults

16 Biopsychosocial approaches to depression in older adults

17 Suicidality in older adults

18 Psychosis in older adults

19 Sexual disorder in older adults

Part VII

20 Delirium in older adults: practical guide for primary health services

21 "Neurocognitive disorders in older adults

* Alzheimer's disease

* Vascular dementia

* Lewy body dementia

* Frontal lobe disorder

* Prion diseases

* Dementia secondary to infective disorder"

22 "Neurocognitive disorders in older adults

* Vascular dementia"

23 Health care delivery for older people with dementia in primary care

24 Agitation

Part VIII

25 Psychosocial rehabilitation in mental health care for older adults

26 Cognitive intervention for patients with cognitive impairments

Part XI

27 Clinical cases