12. INTEGRATING BEHAVIORAL HEALTH INTO A GERIATRIC CLINIC

Introduction

Integrating behavioral health into medical settings, such as primary care clinics, has been shown to have a positive impact on the well-being and health of patients. Increased access to mental health services as well as increased identification of psychiatric issues is an important goal for all patients but may be of particular importance for geriatric patients who often have multiple chronic conditions along with an increased risk of neurocognitive disorders.

This paper is intended to describe the process of starting an geriatric behavioral health service line into geriatric and internal medicine clinics at a large urban hospital that serves a primarily underserved population of patients.

Methods

Using Slicer/Dicer to extract data from the health record system (EPIC), this presentation will describe the geropsychology practice from 2022 to end of year 2024. Data included in the presentation will highlight referral pathways, diagnoses, and treatment plans.

Results

There have been over 2600 referrals to the Geropsychology Service since its inception. Approximately 70% of the referrals were for counseling and 30% for assessments for neurocognitive disorders. Diagnoses include depression (25%), anxiety (19%), memory/cognitive concerns (18%) and other, including grief, bipolar disorder, and adjustment issues (28%).

Conclusions

The data shows both the success of the new practice as well as highlighting the need for additional integrated mental health care in this population. We discuss the process of starting a geropsychology practice in a geriatric medicine setting as well as a geropsychiatry setting. In addition, we describe the ongoing development of Geropsychology-specific training opportunities for psychology and medical residents and fellows.