Treatment of Anxiety, Depression, and Alcohol Disorders in the Elderly: Social Work Collaboration in Primary Care

Anxiety and depressive disorders and symptoms are quite prevalent in older adults as are alcohol problems. Older adults tend to minimize psychological problems and consider psychological symptoms to be related to physical illness. Engagement of the older adult in mental health/substance abuse treatment has been found to be more successful if it occurs in collaboration with primary care treatment. Collaboration between social workers and physicians appears to be an obvious solution to meeting the needs of elderly persons with mental health and/or substance abuse problems who present for medical concerns in their physician's office.