Policy Options for Improving the Quality of Mental Health Care for Seniors in Long-term Care (LTC) and Assisted Living (AL)

What is the path to follow when an elderly person experiences mental health issues? First, establish a diagnosis and secondly, evaluate care options. Monica Cepoiu-Martin thoroughly analyses factors that influence decision-makers in shaping continuing care policies and how their choices could be improved. The mental health issues her research focusses on include Alzheimer disease, related dementias and/or depression. Depending on the stage and severity of the disease, two continuing care options are available: either assisted living, an option for seniors who want to live as independently as possible or long-term care, which is a higher and more expensive level of care. Cepoiu-Martin is evaluating the appropriateness of continuing care policies that have been implemented so far. By summarizing the scientific literature to date and analysing new epidemiological data on Canadian seniors, she evaluates the various care trajectories and outcomes of seniors with mental health issues in the existing care settings. With this new knowledge, she aims at improving future continuing care policies for the growing population of seniors with mental health issues.