Home Health Care Services Quarterly, 25(1-2), 115-148. doi:10.1300/J027v25n01_07
Abstract
Ell (2006) examined the shortcomings of the United States’ healthcare system in identifying depressive symptoms, implementing interventions, and treating depression effectively among the geriatric population. The authors argued that clinical depression is frequently mistaken in geriatric patients as merely an effect of growing old. Contributing factors that heighten the risk of geriatric depression include deteriorating cognitive status, physical impairments, and the loss of loved ones and personal support systems. Additionally, physicians are not specifically