Preventive interventions for older adults. (Progress and Prospects in Mental Health)

The importance of a proactive, preventive approach to mental health problems has long been recognized by community psychologists. Unfortunately, there has been little overlap between community psychology and the psychology of aging and adult development. To illustrate, Bucknet et al. (1985) compiled an annotated bibliography of primary prevention literature, and of 1,008 references, 26 dealt with older adults and only three were evaluated interventions.

The purpose of this article is to present some general observations on the status of prevention efforts among older adults. It is based on an in-depth review of the gerontological and community psychology literatures from 1980 until the present, focusing on those interventions which had the best empirical evaluation (Stacey-Konnert and Gatz, in press). Several trends emerged from this review. First, community psychologists typically distinguish among individual, family, community, and social policy levels of intervention, and most of the evaluated interventions were at the individual level. …