The Center yesterday launched their part in Aging as Ourselves, the nation’s first program to provide health and social services to seniors within the GLBT community, by presenting a forum to announce its expanded senior mental health program.

Aging as Ourselves is an innovative, community-based program that networks many San Diego agencies that specialize in senior services with a focus on serving the GLBT community. With a $1 million, four-year budget, ElderHelp of San Diego is leading the program in partnership with Family Health Centers, Elder Law and Advocacy, Seniors Active in a Gay Environment (SAGE), PALS/LINC-age and The Center.

Each organization is offering different services to the local GLBT senior community. The Center’s role is to provide programs that address mental health issues.

“We are providing mental health seminars and individual counseling, as well as skill-based and social activities,” said Claudia Lucero, senior services program coordinator at The Center. Lucero said a senior workshop and social program is already in place, and the funding from Aging as Ourselves enhances those programs. The mental health seminars and individual counseling are new services.

Dr. Erin Sicard and Dr. Sheryl Dagang of The Center’s Health Services presented Wednesday’s forum to a packed room hosted at The Center’s library.

“Your physical, spiritual and mental health affects everything in your life,” Sicard said. “Most elders in our community have grown up when homosexuality was considered a mental disorder, as far as the physiological community was concerned. It wasn’t until 1973 that homosexuality was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The culture was very much a situation of discrimination. The impact of that is something we want to acknowledge and understand.”

There have also been many anti-discrimination laws passed in 30 years, but Dagang said the GLBT senior community still has special needs and suffers unique barriers to care.

“We know that changes in law do not necessarily impact changes in provision of services,” Dagang said. “What we have found in the senior community, folks that come out of the closet feel like they need to step back in. That is a lot of what we are going to be talking about, because that has directly impacted mental health and mental wellness and mental illness.”

As part of the Aging as Ourselves program, Sicard and Dagang are offering free mental health counseling to seniors in the GLBT community 50 years of age and older. Individual, couples, family and group counseling is available.

To make an appointment, call Caroline Higgins, intake and referral specialist for The Center’s Health Service, at (619) 260-6380 ext. 105 or e-mail chiggins@thecentersd.org. The counseling service is available at The Center’s Health Service facility (2313 El Cajon Blvd. in North Park), and will soon be available one day a week at The Center’s main facility (3909 Centre St. in Hillcrest).

Sicard and Dagang are also hosting more seminars and forums in the coming months. At Wednesday’s forum, they discussed possible topics and listened to suggestions from the seniors in attendance. Topics covered include senior caregivers, support groups for seniors with degenerative diseases, spirituality, sex and sexuality, retirement housing, working with a primary care physician and transportation.

For more information about programs offered through the Aging as Ourselves network, including individual case management and legal assistance, contact ElderHelp at (619) 284-9281 or The Center at (619) 692-2077.