If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health emergency, you can get help by calling 988.
Mary Jones was depressed. It was 2021, and the COVID-19 pandemic had been disrupting lives for nearly a year. Jones was in her early 60s with chronic health conditions, so she stayed home to avoid the virus.
Jones was living alone in Tampa. She missed traveling and socializing with local women鈥檚 group and being around others at the medical office she worked at five days a week. She was starting to feel helpless.
鈥淔or me to go from being that person that was active into different programs to being locked in my home, and that fear of COVID, it was very devastating for me,鈥� said Jones, now 65.
Then a local worker suggested she try the Do More, Feel Better program. It鈥檚 a national research project the University of South Florida is involved with that pairs adults 60 and older with peer coaches to boost mental health.
Older adults face a lot of challenges that can lead to depression. They're more likely to be grieving the deaths of loved ones. They may have physical health problems that limit what they can do. And some struggle to live on fixed incomes.
鈥淪omeone can get kind of stuck, and then once you鈥檙e depressed, it鈥檚 just really hard to motivate yourself,鈥� said Tampa study lead Amber Gum, a professor in the Department of Mental Health Law and Policy at USF鈥檚 College of Behavioral and Community Sciences.
How visiting a park or cooking can treat depression
Do More, Feel Better aims to help seniors stay active and connected with others so that they may live happier, healthier lives. The program is based on a mental health care approach known as .
鈥淲e鈥檝e got decades of research, and also just common sense, that shows us that for any of us when we do more of things that we value and enjoy, we feel better,鈥� Gum said. 鈥淎nd this is a proven treatment for depression, that if you can help someone to schedule and plan and start to do more of those kinds of activities, their depression will lift.鈥�
What sets this program apart is that it trains seniors to stand in for professional therapists to motivate their peers. A researcher at the University of Washington developed the approach and successfully piloted it before inviting USF and Weill Cornell Medicine in New York to get involved in the study, which the National Institute of Mental Health is funding.
The effort has a larger goal: addressing a of mental health professionals by making support services more accessible.
鈥淪o another benefit of this approach is that you could potentially really expand the workforce of people who can deliver an effective intervention to older adults with depression,鈥� Gum said.
Participants are assigned at random to work with a traditional therapist or peer coach. They meet over the course of nine weeks and set manageable goals for the client to get active again. Researchers supervise and evaluate the results.
Jones worked with a coach, who advised her to visit a park along the Hillsborough River in Tampa. There, she could get fresh air and stretch her legs. She also had a relaxing place to read the motivational books she enjoys and could be around people while keeping a distance.
Going there once or twice a week was a fairly simple task, but it meant a lot to Jones.
鈥淭his became like one of my spots, and kind of like my sanctuary where I felt OK and safe,鈥� she said one recent afternoon while sitting on a park bench, books in hand.
The "been there, done that" factor
Chatting with her coach each week was also helpful for Jones, she said, adding that their generational bond made it easier to connect.
鈥淚t really helped because we could talk about some of our aches and pains and, you know, she understood. And I mean her being her age, me being my age, we could relate to how things used to be when we were 30 as opposed to how things are going now in our 60s,鈥� she said.
Gum called the 鈥渂een there, done that鈥� element the 鈥渟pecial ingredient鈥� older adult coaches can bring to the table. Whereas therapists have the education to respond to seniors鈥� mental health challenges but may lack the lived experience to relate to what they鈥檙e going through.
Fewer than half of older adults who have mental health or substance use disorders receive treatment, the National Council on Aging .
Some have a hard time finding an available provider while others struggle to afford care. Hesitancy is another problem.
Nearly 75% of adults 65 and older reported feeling like their problems weren鈥檛 鈥渂ad enough鈥� to be stressed about, believing others had it worse, a 2023 survey from the American Psychological Association.
The five clients that Carita Wells of Brandon coached shared similar feelings with her. She recalled one woman who was 鈥渂ored to death,鈥� and didn鈥檛 realize how much that was affecting her mentally, until Wells helped her identify a passion: cooking.
鈥淭hat lady went to town, and she would recite recipes to me almost every day, and she was so excited about telling me, 'Guess what I cooked yesterday?鈥� 鈥� said Wells. 鈥淪he was a different person by the end of the program; she was vibrant and she was excited about life."
Wells, 69, is a former attorney who learned about the program at her local senior center. She has previous teaching experience, and had already navigated things like health challenges and retirement, so she felt she could empathize with her peers.
鈥淗elping other people who are also seniors was to me a natural fit,鈥� Wells said.
What's next for the study?
USF partners with Hillsborough County's to find clients and coaches. So far, they have enrolled 64 English-speaking and three Spanish-speaking clients, along with 10 English-speaking and two Spanish-speaking coaches.
Coaches receive manuals with scripts about how to evaluate each client鈥檚 emotional state and how to motivate them to do activities that are meaningful to them. They go through role-play exercises before they can start seeing clients, and even after that, supervisors check in to ensure they鈥檙e sticking to the structure so as not to skew results.
The study has been underway for more than four years. Initial observations suggest peer coaching is working as well as therapy, but Gum said each of the three research sites needs to enroll more people and do in-depth data analysis to get a better sense.
The next step would be to expand the program to more communities. Gum said her team is collecting information to determine what they'll need to do logistically to help senior centers across the U.S. implement the program.
Research shows improving seniors' mental health can also slow declines in , memory and other .
There was a big need for a program like this in Hillsborough County, especially after the pandemic, said Mary Jo McKay, a nutrition and wellness manager in the Aging Services department. She鈥檚 heard positive feedback from seniors who have participated.
鈥淪ome of them have said, 鈥業 can鈥檛 believe it was that easy for me to feel better.鈥� And some of them admitted that their families had told them, 鈥楪et up and get out!鈥� and they weren鈥檛 researchers or mental health professionals, but it took this research project for them (seniors) to actually do it,鈥� McKay said.
And it's not just the clients who benefit. Wells said coaching kept her engaged, and it felt good to help others.
鈥淭he back and forth with the client was just a real joy,鈥� she said.
Resources
- To get involved in Do More, Feel Better, you can email domorefeelbetter@usf.edu or call (813) 974-3576 for English or (813) 974-2758 for Spanish.
- Interested clients can also fill out an online .
- You can learn more about aging services in Hillsborough County on or find your local senior center .
- You can get support from , the region's area agency on aging, by calling the Elder Helpline at 1-800-96-ELDER.
- If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health emergency, you can dial 988 for the .
Copyright 2024 WUSF 89.7. To see more, visit . 9(MDAyNDY5MjM1MDEyODE2MzMyMTZmZDQwMg001))
