VHA Geriatrics LLD

The Center for Disease Control’s (Healthy Brain Initiative Public Health Roadmap for Addressing Mental Distress in Older Adults) acknowledges the role that healthcare providers must have to detect depression in older adults. Evidence based interventions exist for late life depression and have been associated with improved health outcomes and healthcare costs (Gilbody et al. Arch Int Med 2006; Unutzer et al. Am J Managed Care 2008). Despite the identified importance, several studies have found that late life depression remains under detected and undertreated (Unutzer JAMA 2002). Untreated late-life depression has been associated with increased morbidity and mortality, including the strongest risk for suicides in older adults (Hall and Reynolds, Maturitas, 2014). Most recently graduated clinicians receive limited and variable education in recognizing, diagnosing and managing late life depression in their health professional training, and those who have graduated more than 10 years ago receive even less. This project targets this gap between current and future state in clinical practice.