Help for our seniors comes in the form of Project Oasis.

"It's a federally funded project which is given to the University of Hawaii and the design of the project is to serve the older citizens of our state, their mental health needs, to improve the services for them," says Doug Kreider of Project Oasis.

Because they are close to the seniors, problems may go unnoticed by friends, family and even caregivers.

Heather Jablonski from Project Oasis says, "One of the reasons we wrote this grant to do this project is because a statewide needs assessment was done by the executive office on aging that showed that caregivers wanted more training specifically on mental health care."

Mental health issues may not be the most comfortable thing for seniors and their families to address.

Kreider says, "Certainly people in older generations grew up at a time where it was not common or acceptable to admit to or talk about either mental or emotional problems so they kind of tend to keep it to themselves and not share it with others and in many cases they don't want to share it outside of the family."

But, Kreider also says, it's important for families to look for help when it appears there is a change in the elder's behavior. "Some of the things that people might be familiar with are mood disorders, the most common of which are depression, anxiety disorders and dementia."

Mental health issues are not to be confused with organic problems such as Alzheimer's disease. There is positive work that can be done by professionally trained counselors and others to alleviate a mental health problem - even something as basic as depression.

"I think there's also a myth out there that as people age, depression is a normal part of aging when in fact, it's not," says Jablonski.

Project oasis phone numbers:

Oahu - 735-3565

Maui - 244-9404