Five things to know about mental health in older adults

Amid a mental health crisis exacerbated by the pandemic, much of the focus on symptoms and care has been on youth in America. But depression and anxiety are not unique to children and younger adults. Older adults – who grew up at a time when mental health was not as openly discussed – struggle with many of the same issues but are often left out of the conversation.

We asked Yesenia Santana-Rosado, MD, a psychiatrist with M Health Fairview who specializes in working with older adults and their families, to share more.

Anxiety and depression can occur at any age.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recently recommended that all adults 65 and under get regularly screened for anxiety by their doctors, but Santana-Rosado said this type of screening can be just as important for people over 65.

“It’s not like you’re 64, you turn 65 and suddenly things change,” she said. Many of the issues are the same as in younger adults: they’re still raising kids, still working, and still paying mortgages. The things that can make someone in their 70s anxious are the same as someone in their 40s.

Patients often go years with symptoms before receiving a mental health diagnosis. At the beginning it can be very shocking for the patient and their family, but Santana-Rosado said patients come to understand themselves better moving forward.

“They understand that it’s OK, that it does happen, that it will happen to every one of us at some point, like diabetes and high blood pressure,” Santana-Rosado said. “And they come to understand that it’s treatable.”

Santana-Rosado sees a mixture of patients, from those who were diagnosed in the past and have struggled with mental health symptoms and illnesses for years, to those who are newly diagnosed. Many people struggled and are still struggling from the pandemic, not just from the isolation and disruption of routines, but from dealing with long COVID-19 symptoms like fatigue or other chronic medical issues.