CAMH Welcomes Geriatric Mental Health Expert

CAMH Connexions

Spring 2006

By Michael Torres,
CAMH Media Relations Coordinator

After ten years as a Medical Director at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Dr. Benoît Mulsant has returned to Canada to redefine the Geriatric Mental Health Program at CAMH – and beyond. Geriatric mental health is a specialty that, internationally, has not received the attention that it needs or deserves. As the new Clinical Director of CAMH’s Geriatric Mental Health Program (the largest such program in Ontario), Dr. Mulsant has a challenge ahead of him.

Dr. Benoît Mulsant

“As an older person, there is a large chance that you will develop dementia or another late-life mental disorder,” says Dr. Mulsant. “Geriatric mental health issues will soon affect millions of Ontarians, and we have a responsibility to respond to the specialized needs of older populations – and provide appropriate care.” This outlook is reinforced by findings in a paper studying depression in seniors and proper use of medications, co-authored by Dr. Mulsant and published in March in The New England Journal of Medicine.

It is the number of people impacted, coupled with what he calls the ‘double stigma’ surrounding mental health or addiction issues and aging, that helps sharpen Dr. Mulsant’s vision of what treatment for geriatric mental health issues can become. Along with Dr. Bruce Pollock, a Canadian colleague who has also returned from Pittsburgh as Senior Scientist at CAMH, Dr. Mulsant has made research an important focus for the Geriatric Mental Health Program at CAMH.

“Right now, many of the drugs that we prescribe to seniors have been tested in younger people. Likewise, younger people are the subjects in the Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans currently being done to understand mental illness,” said Dr. Mulsant. “We need to re-focus our research and study seniors more. There is far too much we still don’t know.”

The Geriatric Mental Health Program has begun plans to work closely with CAMH’s PET Centre in order to study mental health disorders in older populations.

Dr. Mulsant wants a model of care that fits those geriatric mental health clients who are also living with substance use problems, such as alcoholism. “Through a new program structure and increased capacity building CAMH is helping to build a system where older clients can have their mental illness and substance use problems treated concurrently,” said Dr. Mulsant. “People who are treated in this manner are more likely to successfully manage their illness.”

As CAMH moves ahead with the redevelopment of its Queen Street site, Dr. Mulsant sees great opportunities for geriatric mental health. The first phase of CAMH’s redevelopment will include a new geriatric outpatient clinic and two units to treat geriatric mental health patients. These units will be in a modernized setting filled with natural light and access to outdoor space, in a facility that helps staff integrate with clients, and clients transition back into the community into appropriate long-term care.

With experience and passionate determination to advance the field of geriatric mental health in Ontario, Dr. Mulsant is poised to guide CAMH in becoming a world leader in the field. Listed among the top geriatric psychiatrists in Best Doctors in America for over ten years, CAMH is pleased to welcome Dr. Mulsant and his innovative approach to geriatric mental health.

• Print Bookmark