Depression In the Elderly

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Introduction

Contributing Factors

Identifying Symptoms of Depression

Treatment

“Real” Intersection of Systems

Action Ideas That Work

Resource Links

Resource Pages

References

Action Ideas That Work

Understanding Depression: A free series of educational forums provided by six south Minneapolis churches

Health Fair – Understanding Mental Health and Depression

Tele-Group for Depression

Friendly Visitor Programs

Befriender and Stephen Minister Lay Ministry Programs

A Card Ministry

Understanding Depression: A free series of educational forums provided by six south Minneapolis churches

One day, the pastor at a south Minneapolis church recognized that he was spending much of his time ministering to parishioners living with symptoms of depression. The pastor met with surrounding church staff, who agreed that depression was a growing issue, especially in the senior population. After this meeting, six churches in the south Minneapolis City South Cluster (Bethel, ElMilagro/The Miracle, Epiphany, Lebanon, Minnehaha Communion, and Our Redeemer Lutheran) joined together to offer a series of six educational forums, called Understanding Depression. A special thank you to Valborg Tollefsrud, congregational nurse at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, for providing the background of this successful project.

The churches formed a health committee to address the issue. To get some baseline information, the committee developed a brief questionnaire on depression that parishioners from each church completed during Sunday morning worship. The questionnaire could be completed in less than three minutes. Results helped the health committee develop the concept and structure of the forums:

The six sessions were held on Sunday afternoon, one forum held in each church.

To kick off the forums and bring to light the issue of depression, each church’s pastor addressed the subject of depression in their sermons the first week of the series.
Each forum contained a 55 minute presentation, followed by a five minute stretch/refreshment break, and then a 30 minute discussion.
The churches welcomed community members – church membership was not required. Press releases were sent to local newspapers to advertise the forums, and bulletin articles were published. Brochures were developed for the series and distributed throughout the community and mailed to parishioners.
Although it was intended as a series, individuals could attend any or all of the forums.

Implementation Timeline

Deadline	Aspect of Project	What is Needed
Six months prior	Outline project, develop project team, overview and assign tasks	Detailed project timeline listing deadlines and persons responsible
Two months prior	Information for implementation solidified	Dates, times, topics, confirmation of speakers, confirmation of sites
One month prior	Begin promotions to congregations, media, other organizations, and neighborhoods	Brochure Press releases Bulletin articles
Three weeks prior	Distribute foundational materials to pastors	Mayo Clinical Book on Depression Depression articles
Two weeks prior	Begin promotion in churches; follow up with media	Brochure Bulletin articles
One week prior	Continue promotion in churches and other venues; create evaluation forms	Maps to each of the six churches
Day of first forum	Pastor sermons highlighting depression and forums	See above Printing of evaluation forms
At close of each forum	Distribute evaluation forms
Three days after each forum	Distribute evaluation results to each participating church and partners – make changes necessary based on evaluations
Two weeks after final forum	Distribute final evaluation results to each participating church and partners; hold “debriefing” with these groups

Week One: Introduction to Depression
Define depression

Discuss the history of depression using Biblical stories and historic data
Provide information on the occurrence of depression in our present day society (frequency in all populations, frequency within specific age groups, cultural differences, relationship to physical illnesses and stress, and the cost of depression, financial and human)
Opportunities and importance of providing help to people with depression

Week Two: Types and Symptoms of Depression

Contrast depression with normal depressed mood and grief
Discuss in greater depth the primary symptoms of depressive and bipolar disorders
Discuss other mood disorders (ex. mood disorders related to use of substances, postpartum depression, seasonal affective disorder)
Co-occurrence of symptoms with other illnesses and disorders
The inluence of culture of the reporting of depressive symptoms

Week Three: Causes of Depression

Major theories on psycho-social contributors
Biological and genetic contributors
The influence of stressful life events
Populations most at risk for depression
Spiritual components of depression

Week Four: Treatments for Depression

Review current medications including how they work, their benefits and side effects
Light therapy
Electroconvulsive therapy
Psychotherapy
The comprehensive treatment of depression

Week Five: The Role of Faith and the Faith Community

God’s call to care for those who suffer
Spiritual resources and their value in treating depression
Faith community resources and their value
Pastoral care of those who suffer from depression
Making appropriate and effective referrals
Forms of faith community support
Ministry to families

Week Six: A Personal Look / Conversations on Helping
For this presentation, six counselors and a manager of ministerial health of a large health system volunteered their time to meet individually with those who wished to be counseled after the discussion.

Opportunity to continue discussion on areas not fully covered in previous sessions
More comment and question/answer time
Opportunity to take the Zung Depression Scale
Opportunity to discuss the results individually and/or make an appointment with a counselor the following week
Discussion of community resources and how to access them

At the close of each session, a written evaluation was handed out to participants. This evaluation requested the following information:

On a scale of one to five, five being the highest, please rate the following:
The presentation was clear and understandable: 5 4 3 2 1
The session met my expectations: 5 4 3 2 1
What was most helpful about the presentation?
What else would be helpful to you in dealing with depression?
How does meeting in different churches work for you?
How did you find out about this depression series?

In evaluating the forums, staff found that there was a strong need for further support for individuals with depression. To discover how to meet this need, the churches held a planning session at one location, inviting all parishioners to participate. Through this session, the churches found that there was strong interest in depression support groups. Joining with Cooperative Adult Ministry, support groups were formed and met two times per month on Sunday evenings.

In addition, on the Sunday before Thanksgiving a grief support program was held to bring forward the issues of grieving and loss related to the holidays. Individuals in the depression support groups were invited to participate in this session.

To contact Valborg Tollefsrud about this program or other information about geriatric depression, please call her at 952-832-5926.