David has bipolar disorder, and for years has participated in and even collaborated on studies conducted by Colin A. Depp, PhD, an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego Hartford Center of Excellence in Geriatric Psychiatry. In the latest installment of our 2011 Hartford Foundation Annual Report video blog series, there is an extraordinary moment where David discusses the importance of the work that Depp and others at the center are doing.

“I’m not a number. I’m not a statistic. I’m me,” David says. “And we need people like them to deal with the me’s.”

http://youtu.be/1_mHpJy-AvI

We certainly do. Because there weren’t always people like Depp to deal with the “me’s” like David.

Many years ago when I worked in an outpatient mental health clinic in California as a geriatric mental health specialist, a 65-year-old woman was referred to me for counseling. She was bipolar; we called it manic-depression then. She told me that she had been able to manage her illness fairly well but then something changed and she didn’t know what. Her meds apparently weren’t working because she spiraled into an uncontrollable manic phase. She spent most of her money on shopping sprees and her sexual affairs caused her husband to leave.

When we met, she was at the bottom and didn’t know where to turn. I worked with one of the psychiatrists at the clinic in developing a plan of care for her. He worked on stabilizing her on different medications and I provided counseling and social service referral support. The psychiatrist and I reviewed the literature to be better informed on bi-polar illness and older patients, but we found none.

Today I would know to contact the geriatric psychiatrists at the University of California, San Diego.

Research, education and training in geriatrics are crucial in providing adequate and appropriate care to older people; the Hartford Foundation has funded programs to do just that. The Hartford Center of Excellence in Geriatric Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, is one of two geriatric psychiatry centers funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation. The other is at the University of Pittsburgh. Both centers conduct research in geriatric mental health, develop curriculum, educate psychiatric fellows, and provide clinical psychiatric services to older adults. We are very proud of the work they do and have featured them in our 2011 Annual Report, which focuses on Geriatric Mental Health.

David’s story is the latest in a series of moving stories our team has captured from older adults themselves who have benefited from the programs and services funded by the Hartford Foundation. He has been part of a group working to identify coping skills for people with the disorder, even co-authored a paper with Depp titled “Disability and Self Management Practices of People with Bipolar Disorder.”

The University of California, San Diego, Department of Psychiatry was designated as a Hartford Center of Excellence in 2004 because of its impressive track record of research focused on older adults with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other psychotic disorders. The designation as a center of excellence has provided additional funding and prestige to support faculty development and recruitment to ultimately address the shortage of geriatric psychiatrists.

The Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Psychiatry also seek to further the development of academic leadership in the field of geriatric psychiatry by offering research training to physicians in geriatric psychiatry. This goal is being accomplished by providing funding support for research fellows and junior faculty in geriatric psychiatry. The director of the University of California, San Diego, Center of Excellence is Dilip V. Jeste, MD, the Ester and Edgar Levi Chair in Aging, Director of the SIRA, Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, and Chief of the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry. You can read more about the program and the Center of Excellence in Geriatric Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh in the Research section of our 2011 Annual Report.

At the Hartford Foundation, we believe that all health care providers need to have some basic knowledge in order to ensure that older people receive the appropriate care at the appropriate time. We are very proud of the work of our two Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Psychiatry, which are leading the way to better health care for all of the “me’s” like David.