Thank you for sharing your post related to the vulnerable population of the elderly. The concerns for the elderly population and mobilization of care of everyone’s broad interest or concern as the aging process is inevitable. There are 46 million older adults age 65 and older; the projection for 2050 will be an upward of 90 million (RHIhub, 2020). The facts of declining health, physical capability, financial restraints, and dependency on others for care are not going to change. I believe that understanding the health disparities among this population helps bridge the gap of isolation, deprivation, and the worry about care as individuals get older. This awareness has communities collaboratively working to implement focus groups and initiate policies to provide the care aging individuals need. I think that there are many gaps still and the needs of the elderly population that are not being addressed. I do think that screening needs to be done electively instead of emergently, as care takes time to set up and be established. As APRNs we need to think ahead, and help plan for anticipated needs, with early screening and involvement of resources available. I do think education on setting up care as you age should be made available and discussed. Making this a disadvantage of one of the many barriers being faced by communities and the elderly population. The understanding of psychosocial needs must be recognized by providers to help individuals understand and come to terms with addressing their aging needs (Srivarathan, Jensen, & Kristiansen, 2019)

Thank you for your post on the disparities that people with mental health face when it comes to community-based research. While mental illness is not new you are right that the stigma is only recently starting to subside and become more and more a part of the whole healthcare view. People with mental illness benefit from community-based programs through different avenues such as mental health community centers, shelters, community groups, and creating partnerships with the right members of the community who can facilitate getting proper treatment. Community-based research recognizes the unique strengths all stakeholders and aims to sustain research by developing research capacity among community members (Chambers et al., 2019). Connecting members of the community with mental illness to other members can have positive outcomes for this group of people. People with mental illness do not fall under one umbrella category of people but are often different kinds of people from different walks of life. Community programs focused on improving life-style ways and overall health is one way to help the community of mentally ill. Avent Harris et al. (2019) published a study on having healthy lifestyle interventions as the main client focus for patients with moderate to severe mental illness that have poor diet, poor exercise routines and socialization skills. After several months of intervention there was a significant different found in the clients with severe depression and anxiety with just using healthy lifestyle interventions. While using the mentally ill in a community-based research program can pose great difficulties there can be significant positive outcomes for the people involved with the right intentions and programs put it in place. Thank you for your post! Avent Harris, J. R., Averett, P., Littlewood, K., Crowe, A., & Crumb, L. (2019). In My Own Words: Exploring Definitions of Mental Health in the Rural Southeastern United States. Professional Counselor, 9(4), 381–395. https://doi.org/10.15241/ac.9.4.381 Chambers, V., Cook, B. L., Delman, D., Delman, J., Flomenhoft, T., & Progovac, A. M. (2019). Barriers And Facilitators To Community-Based Participatory Mental Health Care Research For Racial And Ethnic Minorities. Health Affairs, 38(3), 391–398. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2018.05040

References:

RHIhub. (2020). Demographic Changes and Aging Population – RHIhub Aging in Place Toolkit. Retrieved from https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/toolkits/aging/1/demographics

Srivarathan, A., Jensen, & Kristiansen, M. (2019). Community-based interventions to enhance healthy aging in disadvantaged areas: perceptions of older adults and health care. Retrieved from https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-018-3855-6#citeas

/