Social Justice Training Within Geropsychology

Abstract

Counseling psychology is well positioned to address issues of social justice to meet the needs of marginalized groups such as older adults. Given the rapid growth of the senior population and an insufficient number of competent professionals to serve them, it is imperative that counseling psychologists act immediately to develop effective pedagogies to prepare for the future. This article describes four nontraditional pedagogies that help prepare students to work with older adults: (a) service-learning (SL) involving undergraduates who provide community service to seniors; (b) an active learning strategy utilizing a narrative therapy technique, in a multicultural training setting with master's students; (c) a brief, case-based, interprofessional training experience for doctoral students; and (d) a hierarchical supervision model with doctoral and master's students in a community outreach wellness

Non-Traditional Teaching Methods That Promote Social Justice

“…Another common theme across the papers in this special issue is the development of educational strategies that prepare students to meet the unique needs of marginalized and under-served populations. Zucchero, Iwasaki, Lewis, Lee, and Robbins (2014) present innovative teaching interventions for students at multiple levels (undergraduate through doctoral training) who are learning to work more effectively with older adults. An outreach project designed to respond to the marginalization of Islamic communities, described by Bhattacharyya, Ashby, and Goodman (in press), engaged students in learning foundational principles that can be generalized across outreach programs with other oppressed communities.…”

Psychology Student Experience of a Brief, Interprofessional Team Training

“…Likewise, Reeves et al (2010b) noted limited generalizable evidence for the effects of IPE. The current paper extends a line of research about a brief, IPE experience (Zucchero et al, 2011(Zucchero et al, , 2010(Zucchero et al, , 2014). It may not be possible to exactly replicate this IPE experience due to differences across institutions, but a comparable experience may be possible.…”

“…The current study contributes to the literature by describing psychology student involvement in IPE with a geropsychology focus and examining psychology student outcomes of that training. Based upon previous research (Zucchero et al, 2010(Zucchero et al, , 2011(Zucchero et al, , 2014, the author hypothesized that psychology students would self-report more positive attitudes toward healthcare teams and greater team skills, after completion of a brief, interprofessional teaming (IPT) training.…”

“There’s not a rug big enough to hide us under”: Participatory action research as anti-ageist psychological practice.

“…Graduate students have played important roles in all our PAR collaborations and this project in particular has served, year after year, as an affirming, nonpathologized entrée to gerontological practice, offering students a unique opportunity to work with older adults outside hospitals, nursing homes, and/or other medical settings. It furthermore provides a natural context for social justice training and advocacy on behalf of (and in concert with) marginalized groups of older adults (Hillman & Hinrichsen, 2014), thereby coinciding with the social justice geropsychology training framework proposed by Zucchero et al (2014). Specifically, Zucchero et al described a series of nontraditional geropsychological pedagogies that included service-learning and community outreach, training experiences that resulted in vivo learning opportunities that corresponded to the “three Es” model of geropsychology specialization: exposure, experience , and expertise (Molinari, 2012).…”

“…What practice models exist for psychologists who wish to explicitly support late-adulthood agency and civic participation—models that counter ageist notions of later life as “a territory apart” (Hendricks, 2005, p. 6)? Zucchero, Iwasaki, Lewis, Lee, and Robbins (2014) pointed out that reliance upon conventional geropsychological approaches is inadequate when questions of marginalization and diversity are at issue, and that even well-intended interventions can be part of the problem when they have origins in stereotypical perceptions. Accordingly, Hendricks (2005) observed that “benign or compassionate ageism, sometimes labeled the ‘poor dear’ syndrome” (p. 5) can underlie such interventions.…”