September is Healthy Aging Month,  the month recognized to promote ways people can stay physically, mentally, and socially healthy as they age.

The National Coalition on Mental Health and Aging  observed significant increases of mental health conditions in older people, disproportionately affected by loneliness, social isolation, and loss.  According to a Kaiser Family Foundation issue brief, in 2020 approximately 25-30% of older adults (1 in 4) reported increased anxiety and depressive disorders. Dementia, which includes Alzheimer’s disease and other related disorders, is a chronic condition progressively affecting thinking, memory, and social abilities severely enough to impair daily life and autonomy. While estimates vary, U.S. Aging and Dementia Trends reported over 7 million people currently living with dementia, and expected to double by 2050.

Older adults in America are facing a mental health crisis worsened by lack of availability and access to behavioral health providers and support services with geriatric mental health training, including in rural and other underserved areas. Where people who have dementia live and how they receive care depends partly on their ability to pay. While Medicare covers the drugs and surgeries used to treat chronic conditions such as heart disease and cancer, it does not cover most costs of dementia and behavioral health care, supervision and/or help with daily living activities, which are primarily what people living with dementia need. When researchers accounted for the value of unpaid family care, they estimated that the average cost of care in the last five years of life for someone with dementia at $287,000, more than 60% higher than the care costs for someone with heart disease or cancer. Families also spent a larger share of their assets on dementia care than on care for other conditions in the last five years of life, most spending on long-term care costs either in facilities or at home, with African American families, people with less than a high school education, and unmarried or widowed women experiencing disproportionate economic burden.

Crucial to the overall health of U.S. adult populations are policies that address growing disparities in dementia risk by ensuring that people and families of every geography, identity, education, and income level have equitable access to the resources and environments that contribute to healthy cognitive and affective function. Improving mental health equity for mid- and late-life adults requires systemic changes, such as strengthening the health care workforce, increasing the number of providers with gerontologic and geriatric mental health training, parity between physical and mental health care, and continued expansion and modernization of Medicare. It is imperative that systems be transformed to expand provider and referral networks to include, destigmatize, and ease access to behavioral health counselors, aging and family therapists, person-centered supports and specialists, and other community-based behavioral health, social-emotional support and caregiver services with training in late-life mental health disorders and dementia-related  best practices.

The time to act is now! Explore efforts to increase Older Americans Act funding, promote health for older adults, learn about the State of Mental Health and Aging in America, bookmark Healthy People 2030 Healthy Aging Custom List, share Move Your Way® materials or Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans Midcourse Report.