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Osborn Home Care Screens Elderly For Depression |
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Posted by Westchester.com
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Monday, 04 February 2008 |
 Rye, NY - Depression is a major health problem for the elderly homecare population. It can easily go under diagnosed, under treated and may lead to early death. Importantly, however, depression is treatable. Osborn Home Care, The Osborn Retirement Communities Licensed Home Care Agency, recognizes the importance of detecting depression in the homebound elderly.
Osborn Home Care has partnered with the Weill-Cornell Institute of Geriatric Psychiatry to train their home health aides on screening and reporting depression. Home health aides can help nurses and physicians identify depression in their elderly patients. “The aides are really the front line of detection for clients who are home bound. It can be more difficult for a physician to make a determination that a patient is depressed on one or two visits a year” says Eileen Killeen Director of Osborn Home Care. “Depression is treatable, once diagnosed. They can feel more energetic, hopeful, focused and involved in their daily life".
According to Dr. Martha L. Bruce, PhD, MPH, Professor of Sociology in Psychiatry at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and her colleagues, depression is a medical illness not an understandable reaction to loss. It is not a customary response to the physical ailments of growing old or an expected part of the aging process. Proper screening and diagnosis is essential for appropriate treatment.
“With so many studies about the rising number of seniors living with depression at home, it is imperative that Home care agencies take note and take action and that is what Osborn home care has done” says Kathy Lonergan, Clinical Operations Manger at The Osborn Retirement Community.
For more information on Osborn Home Care or depression in the elderly please call: 914-925-8258 or visit our website at: www.osbornhomecare.org
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