Notation of Depression in Case Records of Older Adults in Community Long-Term Care (Report‪)‬

Recent federal policy reports call for early detection and response to mental disorder in social service settings as a means to improve the quality of the nation's mental health care, especially for vulnerable groups who experience disparities in care (President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, 2003; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS], 2001). Failure to detect and treat psychiatric disorders is a persistent problem (Joseph & Hermann, 1998). Although research has long addressed the responsiveness of primary medical care to patients' mental health needs, comparable questions about the responsiveness of social service agencies remain virtually unexplored. This article addresses the responsiveness of one public social service agency, community long-term care (CLTC) to client depression. Specifically, the study examines the extent to which agency records reflect notation of depression in clients with established depression. MENTAL DISORDER AMONG SOCIAL SERVICE CLIENTS