Evidence-based mental health services for home and community.

The articles elsewhere in this issue describe the large evidence base of effective treatments for the mental health problems commonly experienced by older adults. However, despite the availability of pharmacologic and psychotherapeutic interventions with demonstrated efficacy in geriatric patients, mental illness remains undertreated in older adults [1]. As many as one half of older adults with a recognized mental disorder fail to receive any mental health services, and even fewer receive evidence-based treatments [2]. Bridging this gap between the scientific findings and communitybased practice is an explicit goal for the National Institute of Mental Health and the Institute of Medicine [3,4]. In some cases, the lack of mental health treatment reflects decisions made by older adults or their clinicians about the need and preferences for mental health treatment. But in many cases, older adults are unable to access mental health treatment because of barriers posed by the health care system, at both the policy and organization levels. Timely access to evidence-based mental health treatment for older adults is a key goal of recent reports by the Older Adult Subcommittee of the