Providing Home Care for Older Adults A Professional Guide for Mental Health Practitioners

A practical guide to providing home-based mental health services, Providing Home Care for Older Adults teaches readers how to handle the unique aspects of home-based care and apply and adapt evidence-based assessment and treatment within the home-based setting.

Featuring contributions from experienced, board-certified home care psychologists, social workers, and psychiatrists, the book explains the multifaceted role of a home-based provider, offers concrete and practical considerations for working within the home, and highlights adaptations to specific evidence-based methods used in treating homebound older adults. Also covered are special topics related to hoarding, safety, capacity evaluations, caregivers, case management, and use of technology. Each chapter includes engaging case examples with practical tips that illustrate what it is like to work in this new and exciting frontier.

Psychologists, counselors, and other mental health practitioners in home settings will be able to use this guide to provide effective home-based care to older adults.

Part 1: What is Home Care?; Chapter 1: Introduction to Home-Based Mental Health Care; Models, Roles, and Reflections; Chapter 2: Working Within a Team; Chapter 3: Establishing and Maintaining a Therapeutic Relationship; Part 2: Practical Considerations; Chapter 4: Managing the Home Setting and Mobile Office; Chapter 5: A Private Practice Model of Providing Mental Health Services for Older Adults: Perspectives of a Practicing Provider; Chapter 6: Managing Safety Concerns in Home Care; Chapter 7: Addressing Hoarding in Home Care; Chapter 8: The Social Worker in Home Care; Chapter 9: The Psychiatric Prescriber in Home Care; Part 3: Assessment and Treatment Considerations; Chapter 10: Assessment Screening Tools and Approaches; Chapter 11: Capacity Evaluations in the Home; Chapter 12: Implementing Evidence-Based Psychotherapy in the Home; Chapter 13: Treating and Supporting the Caregiver; Chapter 14: Training Future Home-Based Care Providers; Chapter 15: Special Considerations in Home Care.

Danielle L. Terry, PhD, ABPP, is a board-certified health psychologist and Director of Behavioral Science at the Guthrie Medical Center Family Medicine Residency in Sayre, Pennsylvania.

Michelle E. Mlinac, PsyD, ABPP, is a board-certified geropsychologist at VA Boston Healthcare System who has worked in home-based primary care since 2008. She is an assistant professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.

Pamela L. Steadman-Wood, PhD, ABPP, is a board-certified geropsychologist. She has worked for the Providence VA Medical Center’s home-based primary care program since 2007. She is also an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.