Faculty from the College of Behavioral and Community Sciences (CBCS) recently traveled to Lima, Peru, to support a growing international partnership focused on improving mental health outcomes for older adults.
Jerome Galea, PhD, associate professor in the School of Social Work, and Amber Gum, PhD, professor in the Department of Behavioral Health Science and Practice, conducted a site visit from Dec. 16-18 with the nonprofit organization Partners In Health, known locally as ).
Jerome Galea, Amber Gum and one of the coaches on their way to see a client.
In 2025, SES launched a pilot of “Do More, Feel Better” (DMFB), a behavioral intervention designed to reduce depression among older adults. The program, also called “Haga Más, Siéntese Mejor” in Spanish, is delivered by trained older adult volunteers serving as community coaches. The intervention is being researched through a collaboration among the ý, the University of Washington and Cornell Weill Medicine, with funding from the National Institute of Mental Health.
As part of the program’s launch, Galea and Maria Salomé Velez, DMFB project coordinator and a CBCS social work doctoral student, helped train five coaches, who then delivered the intervention to 10 clients. Early outcomes showed strong results, leading SES to train an additional five coaches and secure funding to expand the pilot to 40 clients.
During the site visit, Galea and Gum met with 10 coaches and three participating clients and toured a community mental health center and a senior center. Coaches and clients shared positive feedback about the program, noting increased activity levels, stronger social connections and improvements in depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation.