MANSFIELD — Older adults often face unique mental health challenges.
So when an opportunity arose to offer age-specific training for mental health professionals, several area entities jumped at the chance.
Earlier this year, the Ohio District 5 Area Agency on Aging developed a comprehensive training on working with older adults and delivered that training to four local professionals, using state workforce development funds.
The AAA5 recognized Clint Knight, who helped secure those funds, during its annual meeting this month.
Knight is the workforce development director at the Richland Area Chamber & economic Development.
Earlier this year, he introduced the AAA5 to a grant opportunity through the Area 10 Workforce Development Board and Ohio Department of Behavioral Health (formerly the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services).
The agencies worked together to successfully apply for $80,000 and used the funds to expand in-home mental health services for older adults.
Knight credited the AAA5 and its adult protective services supervisor Richard Meeker, plus Steven Burggraf of Family Life Counseling and Psychiatric Services, for their work on the project.
“I’m very appreciative to be honored with this, but I have to say that it’s impossible to be a partner if you don’t have partners,” Knight said.
Training designed to address unique needs of older adults
Trae Turner, the AAA5’s chief of planning and development, said the agency’s goal is to keep people safe and independently, living in their homes with dignity as long as possible.
But some seniors struggle to access mental health care because they aren’t able to drive, don’t have access to a car or have chronic conditions that make it difficult to leave home.
“Behavioral health needs of older adults only continue to become more complex and it’s a growing concern in those that we serve,” Turner said.
“For some time, there’s been a shortage of in-home professionals who have adequate training and the resources to really be able to do that work.”
Knight said that for homebound seniors, mental and behavioral health services are often only available through telehealth.
“When you’re dealing with that sensitive a level of healthcare that is not always the most effective way,” Knight said. “They trained some individuals who are able to take those skills into in-home healthcare.”
The AAA5 used the grant money to partner with mental=health experts to develop a curriculum and train area mental-health providers on how to provide in-home services for seniors.
That training covered topics including: how the brain and body change with age, mental health and substance use disorders in older adults, the impact of medication on older adults (psychopharmacology), social isolation and quality of life, ageism and its impact, physiological and psychological well-being, the neuroscience of stress and anxiety, assisting older adults with chronic conditions, common disabilities in aging, promoting healthy aging, evidence-based mental health approaches and more.
A creative solution to scheduling challenges
Richard Meeker, who heads the AAA5’s adult protective services, said three professionals attended the first, two-day training.
“We had some professionals that we were working with who were specialists in gerontology in the state of Ohio who came in and presented on that,” he said.
“We had Richland County adult protective services, who presented on abuse, neglect, exploitation for that topic as well. So it was a very comprehensive training.”
The participants then offered feedback on the training, which helped the AAA5 condense the material for future sessions. The agency offered the training again — this time as a four-hour event — and had one participant.
Meeker said it can be challenging for mental-health professionals to fit in-person training into their respective schedules, so the AAA5 also developed a recorded version of the training so professionals can complete it on their own time.
“One of the things we wanted to do is make sure we would be able to develop a product (that could be reused in the future),” he said.
Meeker said the programming provided the agency a chance to increase community awareness of the challenges older adults face.
“We’ve noticed that it was a huge need and it was a great opportunity for us to bring awareness to the community and start really developing a way to address it,” he said.
“We’re hoping, through our partnerships, to continue to provide mental health support for older adults. We believe that this work is a good stepping stone for professionals in the community to continue to engage in that.”
Individuals who would like to learn more about the training can contact the AAA5 by calling 419-524-4144.