Secondary prevention of depressive illness among the elderly. A study of programme effectiveness.

A study was made of the effectiveness of a programme of case-finding and secondary prevention with regard to depressive illness among the elderly. The results suggest that there is probably not a large reservoir of undiscovered, untreated elderly depressed patients living alone in the community studied. No depressed patients were referred by social workers and ministers of religion. This should act as a spur towards achieving optimal integration of services. The importance of the psychiatric community nurse in a programme of secondary prevention was confirmed. The steep rise found in the number of depressives in the age group 80 years and older in the latter third of the 1-year period can be interpreted as representing some of the fruits of the case-finding efforts of the psychogeriatric community programme.