부산대학교 도서관

Older adults are unlikely to seek mental health services due to numerous barriers. In 1992, a statewide program, Referral Education Assistance & Prevention (REAP), was created to provide outreach screening, brief counseling, and referral services to older adults at-risk for mental health conditions and substance abuse within a rural state. This article describes the strengths, limitations, and challenges of an existing statewide program. Through outreach, REAP counselors engaged older adults in screening, education, and referral. Community-based outreach programs, such as REAP, are promising models for case identification, but have the potential to increase their impact by ensuring uniform screening and provision of brief interventions for those most at-risk.