AGE AND MENTAL-HEALTH-SERVICES

This paper examines how age is related to the use of formal and inform al mental health services, adjustment to current life conditions, and expectations for improvement in future life conditions among a group o f persons with serious mental illnesses. Interviews with 301 clients o f 3 clinics at a public psychiatric facility serving West Brooklyn and Staten Island provide the data from the study. Outcome measures inclu de nine sorts of help received from informal members of the social net work and from mental health professionals; desires to improve current life conditions; and expectations for future improvements in life cond itions. Through hierarchical regression procedures we examine the impa ct of age on these outcomes, with controls for self-reported symptoms and functioning, sex, and the presence of social network members. The results indicate that younger people receive more help from both infor mal social networks and from mental health professionals. In addition, younger people are more likely to want improvements in their current life conditions and to be optimistic about what the future holds for t hem. The decline in informal and formal support, optimism, and desire to improve their current life situations among older clients may be ca use for concern among mental health professionals. Mental health servi ce providers should give greater recognition to the impact of age on m ental health service needs among persons with serious mental illnesses .