Policy Research on Aging and Mental Health Services (PRAMHS) Project

This study consists of four parts. Part 1 is the result ofa nationwide mail survey of Community Mental Health Centers (CMHC).Questions centered on the delivery of mental health services to theelderly, and cover topics such as the number of elderly people in theclient load, amount of interaction between CMHC and Area Agencies onAging (AAA), factors affecting the delivery of services to theelderly, and specialized services for the elderly. In addition to datafrom the PRAMHS questionnaire, data from the 1976 National Instituteof Mental Health CMHC inventory were merged with the correspondingagencies. Part 2 contains data from a mail survey of Area Agencies onAging. Data include percentage of referrals made by agencies to mentalhealth programs as compared to other types of programs, priority givento mental health issues, factors influencing delivery and coordinationof mental health services to the elderly, and amount of communicationbetween AAA and agencies in its service area serving the mental healthneeds of the elderly. Part 3 consists of data collected by the PRAMHSproject State Unit on Aging (SUA) mail survey. Information is includedon interaction with State Mental Health Agencies, priority given tomental health issues, efforts by the elderly to influence policydecisions, and factors influencing delivery and coordination of mentalhealth services to the elderly. Part 4 contains the result of thePRAMHS State Mental Health Agencies mail survey. Data provideinformation concerning interaction with SUA, efforts to decrease thenumber of elderly in state mental health institutions, efforts by theelderly to influence policy decisions, and factors influencingdelivery and coordination of mental health services to the elderly.