Geriatric Psychiatry Outreach (GO) Program
Kate Mills Snider Geriatric Psychiatry Outreach (GO) Program
The GO Program is a collaborative outreach service that brings mental health care to older adults who need it in their home due to difficulty with transportation or mobility. GO Team members, under the directorship of Dr. Burton Reifler include, a nurse practitioner, social worker and other health care professionals specializing in Geriatric Mental Health. In addition to clinical services, the GO Program assists patients and their families in accessing the many community resources available to our elderly population.
The GO Team is able to bring Mental Health Services to homebound elders thanks to a generous gift from the Snider Family in honor of Kate Mills Snider, after whom it is named. For eligibility and other information, Cathy Wilson, Program Coordinator, can be reached at 336-716-0690.
GO Program Faculty and Staff
Home based mental health services for older adults: A preliminary report from an invitational conference in October 2011 is planned
In October 2011 the Geriatric Mental Health Foundation (GMHF) sponsored an invitational conference in Washington DC, with funding from Mr. Arnold Snider. The invitees were some of the leading applicants for the GMHF's Deirdre Johnston Award over the first three years it has been given. After the completion of the third year of application reviews for the Award, representatives of the selection committee worked to identify the most outstanding applicants. The conference was designed to give invitees the opportunity to discuss the current status of programming in the field of geriatric mental health for homebound older adults. The best practices in delivering home based mental health services to older adults, and strategies to disseminate this information as widely as possible in order to assist existing programs and encourage new start-ups were discussed. Conference participants, representing agencies that provide mental health services for older adults in their homes from New York to California, are listed below.
**Update: A preliminary report from the October 2011 conference can be found here.**
Participants |
Elder Mobile Mental Health Project, Lynn, MA |
Dottie Davies | DDavies@glss.net |
Fuqua Center, Atlanta, GA |
Eve Byrd | ebyrd@emory.edu |
Geriatric Outreach (GO) Program, Winston-Salem, NC |
Cathy Wilson | cawilson@wfubmc.edu |
Home Psychotherapy Program, San Francisco, CA |
Erika Falk | efalk@ioaging.org |
Journey's Way Geriatric Counseling Program, Philadelphia, PA |
Misa Romasco | mromasco@intercommunityaction.org |
Maximizing Independence at Home (MIND), Baltimore, MD |
Deirdre Johnston | Djohnst4@jhmi.edu |
Older Adult System of Integrated Services (OASIS), San Mateo, CA |
Diane Dworkin | ddworkin@co.sanmateo.ca.us |
Professional Assessment and Treatment of Homebound Elders (PATHS), Rochester, NY |
Paul Caccamise | pcaccamise@lifespan-roch.org |
Senior Outreach Services (SOS), Independence, KS |
Steve Denny | sdenny@fourcounty.com |
Senior Reach, Jefferson County, CO |
Vicki Rodgers | VickiR@jcmh.org |
Service Program for Older People (SPOP), NY, NY |
Nancy Harvey | nharvey@spop.org |
Longitudinal Follow-up Study Ongoing
The GO Program began enrolling patients in a longitudinal follow-up study in the fall of 2011. We invite newly enrolled patients to participate in the study, which will gather baseline measures for participants at their enrollment, establish treatment goals, and follow them at periodic intervals to record the interventions made and to what extent the treatment goals have been realized. The interventions will be those that are clinically indicated in accordance with the usual function of the team. Participants and non-participants receive the same clinical care. Participants receive additional periodic visits for the purpose of repeating questionnaires and rating scales that were administered on the original visit. This additional information will enable the GO Program to more fully understand the effectiveness of interventions in caring for homebound older adults.
AAGP to Award $10,000 to Geriatric Mental Health Outreach Services Program
The American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP) has created a new AAGP Deirdre Johnston Award for Excellence and Innovation in Geriatric Mental Health Outreach Services to encourage programs to provide and/or expand services for meeting the mental health needs of the frail elderly in their homes. The association will grant $10,000 to a program based on its excellence and/or innovation in providing mental health services to older adults in the community.
This annual award is made possible by a generous gift from Arnold H. Snider to the Geriatric Mental Health Foundation, which with the association oversees the award. This award is named in honor of geriatric psychiatrist Deirdre Johnston, MBChB, MRCPsych, in gratitude for the care she provided to Kate Mills Snider, Mr. Snider’s mother. Mr. Snider and his wife, Katherine, have endowed the Kate Mills Snider Geropsychiatry Outreach Program and Professorship Fund within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. View press release .
Community Collaborators
The Shepherd’s Center of Greater Winston-Salem
Senior Services, Inc.
Alzheimer’s Association
Northwest Piedmont Council of Governments, Area Agency on Aging
Forsyth County Dept. of Social Services, Adult Services Division
The Elder Law Clinic
Further Reading
A New Home-Based Mental Health Program for Older Adults: Description of the First 100 Cases (.pdf)