#097- Expert Advice to Older Adults New to the Mental Health Space

Expert advice for seniors new to therapy. In this episode I share common causes of depression in older adulthood  and key advice for older adults who are new to the mental health space.

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Transcript

There are many older adults who may be experiencing new mental health conditions and have never connected with a mental health care provider before.

So here is my advice for older adults who are new to the mental health space.

I'm Dr. Regina Koepp. I'm a board certified clinical psychologist, and I specialize with older adults and families. There are some conditions in older adulthood that can increase the risk for older adults developing a depressive disorder. Some of those conditions are losing a spouse, especially if you've been married for 40, 50, 60 years.

We also know that new medical diagnoses and a physical illness can increase the risk for depression in older adulthood and among cases of depression in older adults, a significant portion have a physical health condition as well. And so it's important that if you're noticing mental health symptoms along with your physical health symptoms that you get care and support.

We also know that chronic pain increases the risk for depression, and there's excellent mental health treatment to help you optimize your chronic pain management.

Also when older adults experience changes in their functioning, like maybe they have never had to use a walking device, but now they do. Or maybe they've always been able to manage their finances on their own or live independently and suddenly that changes and they need assistance that can increase a risk for depression as well. And it's important that older adults get connected to care.

So here is my advice for older adults who are new to the mental health space.

My first order of advice is get care immediately. Don't put it off. You're experiencing more suffering than you need to. What we know is that mental health conditions are highly treatable in older adults. You don't have to do this alone. So get connected to care.

Two. Where do you start? The first place to start is with your primary care provider. So if you're noticing that you're experiencing depressive symptoms, it's important to connect with your primary care provider to rule out any medical condition or medications that could be creating mental health symptoms and sometimes those can get corrected in the doctor's office.

It's also important to know that therapy can help at any age. There's a lot of stigma about seeing a mental health provider, especially for older adults. It wasn't a common thing, there's a lot of concern that maybe you'll be crazy or deemed crazy. It's really important to start to shake off some of the stigma. That's keeping you out of care.

It also can help to familiarize yourself with the different mental health providers who treat older adults. Do you want to work with a therapist and do talk therapy? Do you want to talk to a psychiatrist about antidepressant medications? It's really up to you, how you want to approach it. And there are many options.

I like to tell older adults just to give it a try. The worst that will happen is that you're just right back where you started, but the best that could happen is you connect with a mental health provider. You hit it off. And you're back to living your best life or even a better life than the one you were living before. So don't put it off. Mental health conditions are highly, highly treatable, but you have to get into mental health care to get them treated and to ease that suffering.

You're not alone. You don't have to do it alone. There's mental health care available. You can simply go to www.mentalhealthandaging.com and find a mental health provider there, who specializes with older adults.