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Psychological Services for Long Term Care Resource Guide
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Journal Articles
Books
Health Information
Book Chapters
Organizations
Introduction
If psychological
services to older adults are of recent vintage, psychological services to older
adults in long term care settings such as nursing homes are in a neonatal stage!
Earlier stages in the development of gerontology were focused on synthesizing
and teaching research findings about older adults. As with the genesis of any
new specialized field, there has been a gradual application of this knowledge
into services for older adults.
Psychological
services for older adults in residential care facilities have become more and
more needed as the old-old segment (85+) of our population has increased
dramatically. Both long term care providers and federal agencies such as the
Health Care Financing Administration have become increasingly aware of the
mental health and psychiatric dimensions in chronic health care. Increasingly,
nursing homes have become the new psychiatric hospitals for older adults as both
private and public psychiatric hospital care availability has decreased
dramatically over the last 30 years.
Fortunately, over
the last ten years there has been a gradual and increasing momentum in the
development and delivery of psychological services to older adults.
Geropsychology has developed into clinical geropsychology and is now
recognized by APA as a new proficiency. Increasing numbers of psychologists -- clinical, counseling, family and
neuropsychologists -- are providing services in
nursing homes. A major impetus occurred with the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation
Act of 1987 when psychologists were covered for psychological services under
Medicare.
Within clinical
geropsychology the greatest development and area of practice has been in
psychological assessment methods for older adults, especially in the cognitive
domain. Much less work has been done in developing resources and methods for
providing psychotherapy for older adults in residential long term care. What follows is a
set of resources that capture the state of the art in psychological services to
older adults and especially to those in long term care.
Michael Duffy, Ph.D., ABPP
Counseling
Psychology Program
Texas
A & M University
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