Time for Change: What We can Learn from the USA about Primary Care of the Depressed Elderly

Abstract

Depression is a common psychiatric disorder in older people. It is often accompanied by comorbid somatic conditions, and affected patients become frequent users of the health care system. Due to its relevance not only for the individual but also for society, reflection on the current health care service and optimization possibilities for the depressed elderly seems important and necessary. Mostly, the general practitioner is not only the first point of contact, but is also responsible for the entire treatment of depression. Due to the limited possibilities of primary care, for several years, there have been collaborative care programs in the USA that provide an optimized networking and collaboration between different health care providers and use specially trained care managers to support the usual primary health care service with short behavioral interventions. In Germany, there are also new approaches and models to improve the health care service for the depressed elderly, but these require further evaluation.