MENTAL HEALTH CARE FOR OLDER PERSONS: NETWORKING AS A RESPONSE TO ORGANIZATIONAL CHALLENGES -super-1

We use case study methodology to examine the degree of cooperation and coordination among organizations providing mental health care to older persons. Mail surveys and in-depth interviews were employed to gather data from human service organizations in one relatively rural county of Upstate New York. We find that organizations that are older and provide larger numbers of services tend to have a higher degree of integration with other organizations. There is little evidence of formal coordination of services. Informal cooperation, at least on an ad hoc basis, is common, though. Older persons with chronic mental health problems are relatively well served by the system. Older persons whose mental health problems are associated with the aging process are not well served by the system. The growth of mental health managed care has increased competition among many organizations, further fragmenting a weakly integrated system. Copyright 2000 by The Policy Studies Organization.