Positive Aging Act

Positive Aging Act (S. 525)
Senators Collins (R-ME) and Mikulski (D-MD)

The Positive Aging Act is designed to make mental health services for older adults an integral part of primary care services in community settings and to extend them to other settings where older adults reside and receive services. The evidence-based services under this legislation will be provided by interdisciplinary teams of mental health professionals working in collaboration with other providers of health and social services.

Specifically, the Positive Aging Act would provide essential mental health services for older adults by authorizing SAMHSA to:

• support demonstration projects to integrate mental health services in primary care settings;
• support grants for community-based mental health treatment outreach teams;
• designate a Deputy Director for Older Adult Mental Health Services in the Center for Mental Health Services;
• include representatives of older Americans or their families and geriatric mental health professionals on the Advisory Council for the Center for Mental Health Services;
• include targeting substance abuse in older adults in projects of national significance; and
• require state plans under Community Mental Health Services Block Grants to include descriptions of the states’ outreach to and services for older individuals.

Aging and Behavioral Health Alliance of East Central Ohio
Alliance for Aging Research
Alzheimer’s Association
Alzheimer’s Foundation of America
American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
American Academy of Nursing
American Academy of Nursing, Expert Panel on Aging
American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry
American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging
American Association of Nurse Assessment Coordinators
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
American Geriatrics Society
American Group Psychotherapy Association
American Mental Health Counselors Association
American Nurses Association
American Occupational Therapy Association
American Postal Workers Union Retirees
American Psychiatric Association
American Psychological Association
American Psychotherapy Association
American Society on Aging
Anxiety Disorders Association of America
Association for Ambulatory Behavioral Health Care
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
Council on Social Work Education
Direct Care Alliance
Geriatric Mental Health Alliance of New York
Gerontological Advance Practice Nurses Association
Gerontological Society of America
Kansas Mental Health and Aging Coalition
Kentucky Mental Health and Aging Coalition
Lutheran Services in America
Mental Health America
National Alliance for Caregiving
National Alliance on Mental Illness
National Association of Area Agencies on Aging
National Association of Directors of Nursing Administration in Long Term Care
National Association of Geriatric Education
National Association of Nutrition and Aging Services Programs
National Association of Social Workers
National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors
National Association for Children’s Behavioral Health
National Coalition of Mental Health Consumer/Survivor Organizations
National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare
National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care
National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare
National Council on Aging
National Foundation for Mental Health
National Senior Citizens Law Center
National Senior Corps Association
National Spinal Cord Injury Association
New Hampshire Coalition on Substance Abuse/Mental Health and Aging
Oklahoma Mental Health and Aging Coalition
OWL - The Voice of Midlife and Older Women
Pennsylvania Behavioral Health and Aging Coalition
PHI – Quality Care through Quality Jobs
Psychologists in Long Term Care
Society of Clinical Geropsychology
Suicide Prevention Action Network USA
United Jewish Communities
United Spinal Association
Volunteers of America
Witness Justice

(current as of November 2009)