Public mental health service use among U.S. adults age 50+ compared to younger age groups

ABSTRACT

Despite increasing numbers of older-adult mental health service users, few studies have examined their use of public mental health services. Using the 2018 and 2019 Mental Health-Client Level data for clients age 18+ (N = 4,291,737 in 2018 and N = 4,513,946 in 2019), we examined whether those age 50+ who received outpatient-only, both outpatient and inpatient, or inpatient-only services had greater odds of certain types of mental disorders, especially schizophrenia, than younger adults. Of all users, 25.3% were age 50–64 and 6.7% were age 65 + . Multivariable logistic regression results, controlling for gender, race/ethnicity, census region, and alcohol/substance use disorder, showed that compared to the 30–49 age group, the 50–64 and 65+ age groups had higher odds of having depressive disorder in outpatient-only settings; however, they had consistently higher odds of a diagnosis of schizophrenia or other psychotic disorder in all three service settings. Along with advocating for increased funding for publicly-financed mental health services, social workers in public mental health service systems should ensure that they utilize effective intervention skills for older adults with serious mental illness.

KEYWORDS:

• Public mental health services
• depressive disorder
• anxiety disorder
• schizophrenia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

This study is based on de-identified public-domain data https://www.samhsa.gov/data/data-we-collect/mh-cld-mental-health-client-level-data.

Author contributions

Study conceptualization: NGC; data management: NGC; data analysis and interpretation: NGC & CNM; manuscript draft: NGC; final editing: NGC, DMD & CNM

Additional information

Funding

This study did not receive any funding.