Geropsychology Post-Doctoral Training in Public Sector Service Delivery

Abstract

There is a growing need for geropsychologists who are specialists in practice, research, education, and advocacy for older adults. The combined USF/Tampa VA geropsychology fellowship program focuses on the training of three post-doctoral Fellows each year in public sector service delivery across diverse long term care (LTC) and primary care settings. Addressing the bio-psycho-social needs of frail, poor, and minority older adults within an interdisciplinary framework exposes geropsychology Fellows to the complex nature of mental health problems of older adults and the need for collaborative efforts across professional lines. The program builds on prior geropsychology training at the graduate and internship levels by providing an integrated framework to achieve clinical, didactic, program evaluation, and advocacy goals: (1) delivery of state-of-the-art evidence-based psychological services to disadvantaged older adults in geriatric public sector primary care sites; (2) mastery of the knowledge base on diversity and interdisciplinary teamwork as they relate to providing services to older adults, including those residing in rural areas; (3) gaining competence in the evaluation of services to disadvantaged older adults; and (4) experience in public health advocacy for improvement of the LTC system.

HIV: A Health-Related Disparity Among Older Hispanic Women

“…Given the projected increase in the number of older adults in general and older Hispanic females in particular in the U.S. population in the coming decades, health care workers may expect to encounter a greater number of older women in their practices as a proportion of older adults in need of health care (Jeste et al, 1999; Molinari et al, 2005). The proportion of older women living with AIDS is also increasing at an alarming rate.…”

Geropsychology training in Canada: A survey of doctoral and internship programs.

“…Various models of geropsychology training have been reported in the literature across a variety of educational levels and sites. These include a generalist doctoral program (DeVries, 2005), a specialist program (Qualls, Segal, Benight, & Kenny, 2005), a doctoral program within primary care (Zweig, Siegel, & Snyder, 2006), at the internship level (Hyer, Levanthal, & Gartenberg, 2005), at the postdoctoral level within a consortium of public sector training sites (Molinari et al, 2005), and in a nursing home setting (Karel & Moye, 2005). Overall, these models demonstrate the tremendous potential for integrating clinical geropsychology training into existing services and the tremendous success of these endeavours.…”

Competency-based geropsychology training in doctoral internships and postdoctoral fellowships.

“…More recently, specialized geropsychology training programs in public sector (Molinari et al, 2005), long-term care (Karel, Smith, & Ogland-Hand, 2000), family medicine (King & Castle, 2005), and community service delivery settings (Center for Aging Resources, 2009) have emerged. A series of articles published in the APPIC Newsletter (Hinrichsen, 2001) and a full issue of Gerontology and Geriatrics Education were devoted to describing prototypes of geropsychology training at the graduate, internship, and postdoctoral levels (DeVries, 2005; Hinrichsen & Zweig, 2005; Hyer, Levanthal, & Gartenberg, 2005; Karel & Moye, 2005; Molinari et al, 2005; Qualls, Segal, Benight, & Kenny, 2005; Zweig et al, 2005).…”