Mental Health Distress and Suicide Risk among Older Adults Who Receive Nutrition Services Programming: Implications for Licensed Professional Counselors.

Licensed professional counselors (LPCs) are now eligible to provide mental health counseling to older adults as Medicare providers. Many older adults receive home delivered (HDM) and congregate (CM) meal services through the Aging Services Network, though their mental health impact remains under examined. This study compared the mental health and suicide risk of older adults receiving HDM or CM services. Our cross-sectional study of 221 HDM and 150 CM recipients from 2018-2020 found significant group differences in psychological distress, t(366) = 3.28, p = .001, perceived burdensomeness; t(357.31) = 2.77, p = .006, and thwarted belongingness, t(357.96) = 4.71, p < .001, between the samples. Our findings suggest different mental health prevalence for CM recipients, who have access to peer socialization and group programming. We discuss the implications of our findings for LPCs using the Aging Services Network to support the mental health of their older adult clients.