PhD Student University of Tennessee, Knoxville Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
Overview: The poster focuses on describing a socio-ecological model to increase mental health access for geriatric population. This model is a modern approach to guide geriatric care management by involving multiple stakeholders within the society. The model was developed through international literature search and adaptation of social determinants of health framework.Proposal text: The presentation will discuss the social constraints hindering accessibility of older adults to geriatric mental healthcare. For older cohorts, there is decreased synergy between social determinants of health, a sense of personal security and knowledge about mental health conditions. The centrality of the discourse in this presentation is around deciphering a new socio-ecological model with adaptation of the social determinants of health framework, to assist health and social service practitioners in serving the geriatric population. The socio-ecological model is designed by initiating a multi-stakeholder partnership approach to resolve inaccessibility surrounding mental healthcare for older adults. The purpose of this presentation is to combine aspects of socio-ecological theory with the social determinants of health (SDoH) framework in order to establish a model that can be used by health and social service providers to guide geriatric care. The model was developed after an international literature search, and it is offered as a modern approach for guiding geriatric care, which will be covered in detail through the presentation. The motive of the literature review was to understand the concept of accessibility, the factors influencing it, by viewing the practices in nations with strong healthcare systems and developing a model that can help practitioners structure geriatric care management in nations with poor accessibility to mental health and geriatric wellbeing. The literature review provides strong affirmation that SDoH framework needs to be adapted to explore health and wellbeing related concerns in geriatric care and design models where interventions are focused on social and ecological components inhibiting mental health access. Using a socio-ecological model in geriatric care management will shift focus from mere detection and treatment of mental health problems to reducing challenges of social deterrents of the elder population. The absence of socio-ecological perspectives in geriatric research to combat mental health inaccessibility has propelled mental health and geriatric care policies to be designed without taking into account the challenges faced by older adults in their intra-personal, community and organizational interactions. Most of the public healthcare policies of the geriatric age group are designed to treat individuals with symptomatic neurological and psychological disorders through a micro-level approach. It is important that social work and public health practitioners approach geriatric care management by focusing on involving multiple players to eradicate the knowledge gap and bias that is associated within the society in terms of mental health needs for symptomatic as well as non-symptomatic individuals over 65 years of age. The main learning objectives are - 1) Attendees will be introduced to socio-ecological theory in understanding geriatric care management through a structured macro-level model, 2) Attendees will learn to adapt the Social Determinants of Health Framework and understand various social components that hinder geriatric mental health access, 3) Health and social service practitioners will be introduced to a new socio-ecological model to structure geriatric care management in nations with poor accessibility to mental health.