Counseling programs for older persons: Status, shortcomings, and potentialities

The intent of this article is to examine programs and services designed to meet the psychological and psychosocial needs of older people. Knowledge of existing programs is important to planning purposefully and to advancing the development of our field. Therefore, following a historical overview that will provide a perspective for examining mental health services, a variety of settings and programs that provide counseling for older people will be described. These include traditional care settings and programs, emerging settings and programs, and some alternative programs to help meet specific areas of need. This article concludes with a discussion of the gaps and potentialities of the existing delivery system for more adequately addressing the mental health needs of older people