ABSTRACT

Depression screening is an effective way of identifying missedelderly depression cases and initiating appropriate treatment.However, the evidence-supporting screening alone did not lead toeffective treatment and improvement in depression. Depression caremanagement intervention has proven to be effective in enhancingtreatment adherence and depression outcomes in patients with laterlife depression. The intervention was originally developed in the US, and has recently been tested in many countries in Western,European, and Asia-pacific regions. A recent study in Korea foundthat care management not only contributed to reducing depressivesymptoms in geriatric patients suffering from depression, but alsoincreased the treatment adherence rate, which in turn increased theremission rate. Care management was an effective strategy forelderly depression management. Through disseminating such anintervention program nationwide, elderly depression, which hasbeen emerging as a serious challenge in aged society, may beeffectively managed.