APA Fact Sheet on the Positive Aging Act

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Positive Aging Act of 2007 (S. 982/H.R. 1669)
Sponsored by Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Susan Collins (R-ME) and Representatives Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)

The Positive Aging Act of 2007 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 of 2007 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.

Positive Aging Act of 2007 Organizational Supporters

Alzheimer's Association
Alzheimer's Association, New York City Chapter
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry
American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging
American Association of Pastoral Counselors
American Counseling Association
American Group Psychotherapy Association
American Mental Health Counselors Association
American Nurses Association
American Occupational Therapy Association
American Psychiatric Association
American Psychological Association
American Psychotherapy Association
American Society on Aging
Anxiety Disorders Association of America
Association for Ambulatory Behavioral Healthcare
Association of Jewish Family & Children's Agencies
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
Clinical Social Work Association
Clinical Social Work Guild 49, OPEIU
Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance
Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy & Action
Geriatric Mental Health Alliance of New York
Gerontological Society of America
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago
Kansas Mental Health and Aging Coalition
Maryland Coalition on Mental Health and Aging
Mental Health America
Mental Health and Aging Coalition of Eastern Kansas
National Alliance for Caregiving
National Alliance on Mental Illness
National Association for Children's Behavioral Health
National Association for Rural Mental Health
National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders
National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a)
National Association of County Behavioral Health and Development Disability Directors
National Association of Mental Health Planning and Advisory Councils
National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems
National Association of Social Workers
National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors
National Association of State Units on Aging
National Council on Aging
New York Academy of Medicine
Oklahoma Mental Health and Aging Coalition
Older Adult Consumer Mental Health Alliance
Older Women's League
Pennsylvania Behavioral Health and Aging Coalition
Prairie View, Inc.
Psychologists in Long Term Care
Society of Clinical Geropsychology
Suicide Prevention Action Network USA
United Jewish Communities

(current as of November 7, 2007)

For more information, please contact Diane Elmore, PhD, MPH in the APA Public Interest Government Relations Office at (202) 336-6104 or via email.