Counselor Demographics, Ageist Attitudes, and Multicultural Counseling Competence Among Counselors and Counselor Trainees

Counseling for Wellness With Older Adults

“…For example, counselors who may lack training in gerontology will nonetheless see more adults 65 years and older entering their clinical practices. Research will be needed to mitigate the influence of ageism on student attitudes so that older adults receive the highest quality of care (McBride & Hays, ). Professional leaders will continue to identify strategies to advocate for expanded mental health access for older adults, including the importance of Medicare reimbursement (Fullen, ).…”

“…According to research, a focus on aging as a medical problem, rather than as a normal part of the life span, predicts ageism within a society (Ng, Allore, Trentalange, Monin, & Levy, ). Negative assumptions about later life are cited as a reason that students do not express an interest in working with older adults (Gonzales, Morrow‐Howell, & Gilbert, ; McBride & Hays, ). When older adults do present for mental health treatment, mental health professionals may lower their expectations about the effectiveness of the counseling process (Woolfe & Briggs, ), assume that older clients have a poorer prognosis than younger clients despite the same presenting issues (Danzinger & Welfel, ), and question whether older clients are capable of developing a therapeutic relationship (Helmes & Gee, ).…”

Medicare Reimbursement for Counselors: Counseling Professionals’ Advocacy Beliefs and Behavior

“…Currently, little is known about counseling students’ attitudes toward counseling older adults. Previous research indicates that many counseling students have an interest in topics related to gerontological counseling, such as grief, retirement, caregiving, and family counseling with aging parents (Foster, Kreider, & Waugh, 2009), and positive attitudes about aging are positively correlated with multicultural competence (McBride & Hays, 2012). Alternatively, there is a lack of references to aging or ageism in the 2016 CACREP Standards (Fullen, 2018), as well as a lack of research on older adulthood within counseling journals (Fullen, Gorby, Chan, Dobmeier, & Jordan, 2019).…”

A Life Span Developmental Perspective on Psychosocial Development in Midlife

“…Aging is often depicted negatively, as something to avoid, dread, and counteract (Degges-White, 2001). Adults of many cultures associate negative physical and mental traits with old age (Löckenhoff et al, 2009), and negative attitudes toward old age tend to peak in midlife (Davis & Friedrich, 2010;McBride & Hays, 2012). Aging stereotypes often exist without awareness yet can become internalized by midlife adults as self-fulfilling self-stereotypes that may determine adults' aging process (Levy, 2009).…”

“…Human growth and development is a core area of counselor education (Kaplan et al, 2014), but middle adulthood is an understudied period of the life span (Lachman, 2015). Given that myths about midlife and negative stereotypes about aging proliferate, it is important that counselors carefully assess their knowledge and beliefs about middle age (McBride & Hays, 2012). In constructing an identity, counselors integrate their personal and professional selves; personal views and knowledge about midlife are implicit to professional activities (Degges-White & Stoltz, 2015).…”