Between 2000 and 2010, the number of older adults in the United States grew by 15 percent — faster than the U.S. population as a whole.1 By 2030, one in five Americans will be age 65 and older.
Psychology as a profession may not be prepared to meet the behavioral health needs of this population.2
According to APA's 2015 Survey of Psychology Health Service Providers,3 about 62 percent of licensed psychologists occasionally, frequently or very frequently provide care to adults age 65 and older. Yet the survey found that only about 1 percent of licensed psychologists reported professional geropsychology as their primary specialty. Relatively few psychologists provide services to adults ages 80 and older, a fast-growing segment of the older adult population.
Licensed psychologists who reported providing care at least occasionally to older adults spent an average of 8.7 hours per week providing direct services, 1.6 hours providing services to family members or caregivers of older adults and 0.8 hours consulting with or training health-care teams.
Ongoing analyses will help to determine whether practice patterns will meet the growing need for psychological services among older adults, such as whether psychologists are sufficiently trained to provide services to an aging population.
— Karen Stamm, PhD, Auntré Hamp, MEd, MPH, Michele Karel4, PhD, Jennifer Moye4, PhD, Sara Qualls4, PhD, Daniel Segal4, PhD, Yvette Tazeau4, PhD, Peggy Christidis, PhD, and Luona Lin, MPP
For more information, contact APA's Center for Workforce Studies.
1 U.S. Census Bureau. (2011). The Older Population: 2010 (C2010BR-09). Retrieved from www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-09.pdfopens in new window
2 Hoge, M. A., Karel, M. J., Zeiss, A. M., Alegria, M., & Moye, J. (2015). Strengthening psychology's workforce for older adults: Implications of the Institute of Medicine's report to Congress. American Psychologist, 70(3), 265-278. doi:10.1037/a0038927
3 American Psychological Association. (2015). Survey of Psychology Health Service Providers [Unpublished special analysis]. Washington, DC: Author.
4 Author is a member of the APA Committee on Aging's Geropsychology Survey Working Group.
