Collaborative Stepped Care and Peer Support Programme for Older People At-Risk of or With Depression

Overview

To develop a viable and sustainable best practice model to promote elderly mental wellness and prevent elderly depression for Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust has initiated a pilot holistic support project entitled "JC JoyAge: Holistic Support Project for Elderly Mental Wellness". Commenced in October 2016, this 3-year project will deliver six programmes: (1) social services staff training; (2) peer supporters certificate training; (3) outreach and engagement activities for at-risk older adults; (4) standardized prevention and early intervention service; (5) community education programmes; and (6) public awareness and public education activities in four pilot districts in Hong Kong, namely Kwun Tong, Sham Shui Po, Kwai Chung, and Tseung Kwan O. The project aims specifically to: 1. Evaluate the effectiveness of a collaborative stepped care and peer support programme in engaging older people at-risk of or with depression; 2. Evaluate the efficacy of the programme in reducing symptoms/risks and promoting wellbeing in older people at-risk of or with depression; 3. Investigate the impact of the programme on care resources utilization in these older adults.

Elderly depression is a neglected problem affecting our entire society with grave consequences and high societal costs. Early intervention and prevention can be effective in addressing the problem. The challenges in implementing early intervention and prevention within the existing service platforms, however, are threefold: (1) fragmented services; (2) reactive services; and (3) stigma and low awareness. These challenges resulted in the current service overload and mismatch, which will be compounded by rapid population ageing and mental health workforce shrinkage. The study can address these challenges by (1) realigning existing mental health and elderly services; (2) productive ageing for outreach and engagement; and (3) building up capacity of a preventive network in the neighbourhood. This pilot project therefore combines models of collaborative stepped care and productive ageing, with systematic education programmes, to empower the neighbourhood in providing effective early intervention and prevention for elderly depression. In the four representative pilot districts of Kwun Tong, Sham Shui Po, Kwai Chung, and Tseung Kwan O, community mental health and elderly services will collaborate to deliver a stepped care service protocol for preventing and detecting elderly depression. In 3 years, this project will deliver six programmes: (1) social services staff training; (2) peer supporters certificate training; (3) outreach and engagement activities for at-risk older adults; (4) standardized prevention and early intervention service; (5) community education programmes; and (6) public awareness and public education activities. This will produce a mature service model tested in one-fifth of the districts in Hong Kong with different demographic and service characteristics; create a strong team of Peer Supporters and Social Workers in Elderly Mental Health with clinical competence in preventing elderly depression and promoting elderly mental wellness; significantly raise public and neighbourhood awareness and care for elderly mental wellness; reach out and serve 2,880 at-risk older adults and 960 depressed older adults; and provide evidence on the social impact of the model for further service rollout.