Geography of Service Delivery: On the Role of Mental Health Service Structure in Community Senior Services for Puerto Rican Older Adults

The main purpose of this study was to examine the role of mental health services structure in community senior centers and how it interacts with Puerto Rican older adults' historical, social, and cultural experiences to relate to their perceptions, awareness, and utilization of mental health services. The study was carried out within a concurrent confirmatory mixed methods design that combined quantitative and qualitative components. The main results indicate that an integrated mental health services structure is associated with positive perceptions of mental illness and mental health services. Regression analyses indicate that mental health services structure may increase awareness about mental health services and how to access them with migration history, current mental illness symptoms, mental health history, age, and income as predictors. Further, mental health service utilization may also be facilitated with the implementation of an integrated structure of mental health services and a targeted approach with age, migration, mental health history, and marital status as predictors. Further research is needed to solidify the results in this study. In particular, more knowledge is needed on the way organizational aspects of community senior services administration may play a role in successful implementation of an integrated model.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Social Work

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Velez Ortiz, Daniel

Contributors dc:contributor

• Larrison, Christopher R.

• Hispanic American Studies

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3395524

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/87337