Example of Program for Treating Late-Life Depression in Primary Care, National Mental Health Information Center

Box 8
Example of Program for Treating Late-Life Depression in Primary Care

Program: IMPACT - Improving Mood: Providing Access To Collaborative Treatment For Late Life Depression
Goal: To recognize, treat, and prevent future relapses in older patients with major depression in primary care. About 5-10% of older patients have major depression, yet most are not properly recognized and treated. Untreated depression causes distress, disability, and, most tragically, suicide.
Features: A multi-site clinical trial delivering depression care, in the primary care setting, to older people with major depression. Mental health professionals added to the team give older adults a choice of medications or psychotherapy. If they do not get better, a stepped up approach is offered via supervision by a psychiatrist.
Outcomes: The study's preliminary findings are that the intervention, compared with usual care, leads to higher satisfaction with depression care and reduced prevalence and severity of symptoms, or complete remission (Unutzer, 2002).
Biggest Challenge: To ensure that the intervention is readily adapted from the research setting into the practice setting.
How Other Organizations Can Adopt: Be receptive to organizational changes in primary care and to finding new methods of reimbursement.
Contact Point: Dr. Jurgen Unutzer, Principal Investigator, UCLA
Sites: Study sites in California, Texas, Washington, North Carolina, Indiana