Anxiety – Clinical Guidelines
For Health Care Professionals
Find clinical tools and resources to support your patients.
For Older Adults & Care Partners
Explore ways to support mental health and well-being for yourself and loved ones.
Canadian Guidelines for the Assessment and Treatment of Anxiety in Older Adults
Until now, there were no existing guidelines for anxiety in older adults to help support health care providers with assessment and treatment. Older adults also needed access to evidence-based mental health information to help them prevent or manage mental health symptoms and thrive.
The CCSMH engaged with older adults and care partners, health care providers, and community organizations across Canada to deliver these clinical guidelines and tools that will address the stigma around aging and mental health, empower older adults to take steps to support mental health and well-being, and establish best practices for anxiety in older Canadians.
Stay tuned: online orders for paper copies of the guidelines will be available soon.
Fees may apply.
Meet the team:
In September 2022, a Working Group was formed to develop and synthesize the guidelines. This group consists of multidisciplinary leading subject matter experts across Canada in the field of anxiety disorders in older adults. Members met monthly to advance this work by offering their clinical expertise, evaluating research evidence, voting on recommendations, and drafting the guidelines.
The guideline development process also included a bilingual Lived Experience Advisory Panel consisting of older adults across the country with anxiety or informal caregiving experience to older adults with anxiety. The personal experiences and expertise shared by our panel members played a key role in informing the development of these guidelines.
Key takeaways from the guidelines
Find important information about key recommendations presented in the clinical guidelines for anxiety in older adults. Print this infosheet for your office and share it with your colleagues.
Listen to the podcast interview with Dr. Andrea Iaboni
Listen to Dr. Andrea Iaboni, clinical lead of the guidelines, on the recent podcast interview with Anxiety Canada where she discusses the challenges older adults face in seeking mental health support, including the need for specialized treatment tailored to their unique circumstances. Dr. Iaboni underscores the significance of CCSMH’s clinical guidelines, which aim to bridge gaps in understanding and treatment for health care providers, older adults and care partners.
Watch the webinar presented by Dr. Andrea Iaboni
Help us improve our resources:
CCSMH aims to promote older adults’ mental health by connecting people, ideas and resources. Please take a few moments to tell us about yourself and your experience with our resources by participating in this survey.