Nanette A. Kramer
Michael C. Smith
Teachers College Columbia University
This past August, Division 20 co-sponsored, with Columbia University, two pre-APA convention workshops in clinical geropsychology. Both workshops were enthusiastically received by participants, and we thought it might be helpful for future planning to briefly share some information about the participants and their comments about the workshops.
The first workshop was on introductory overview of clinical geropsychology, and the second was an intermediate-level program which included presentations on a variety of clinically relevant topics. The workshops were given on two consecutive days, and each featured an outstanding group (8 or 9 each day) of scientists and practitioners as presenters.
The advertising and mailings for the workshops had been targeted to a wide audience, so not surprisingly, participants represented a number of professional disciplines. About 60% were psychologists, about 30% were social workers, and about 10% were nurses, counselors, or other professionals. The groups differed little in age, experience, and interests, and so the information that follows is not broken down by discipline.
On the whole, participants were experienced practitioners. Their median age was 43, they had a median of 12 years of professional experience, and a median of 5 years of experience specifically with older people. This was essentially true regardless of whether they enrolled in both workshops or only in the second, intermediate-level workshop. (Very few participants enrolled only in the first, introductory workshop; about half enrolled for both and half for the second workshop only). Participants who skipped the first workshop had only slightly more experience working with older people than those who took both workshops.
That participants in continuing education workshops in clinical geropsychology, even those in introductory-level one, tend to be experienced practitioners is something we have found in other workshops in which we have been involved. This repeated findings suggests that future workshops should perhaps focus more on intermediate- and advanced-level presentations. Introductory workshops, when they are given, should perhaps be best thought of as review courses for practitioners who are typically already familiar with the material and who generally feel ready for immediate further exposure to more advanced material.
Participants reported working with their older clients in a variety of locations; nursing homes were the most commonly cited setting for seeing older clients (this was reported as a work setting by about half of the participants). Following that, in descending order of frequency were outpatient settings, hospitals, client's homes, private offices and daycare centers.
We asked participants to describe the types of problems raised by their older clients and addressed in their therapy sessions. The list of responses were impressive and included, among the more commonly mentioned topics, health issues, anxiety, loss, depression, dementia, behavioral management, loneliness, control issues, dealing with the health care system, sleep problems, chronic mental illness, bereavement, financial problems, housing problems, adjustment to nursing home placement and family conflicts. The scope of responses to this questions supports the view of later life as a time of multiple and complex psychobiosocial phenomena and points to the need for training of professionals to cover a broad spectrum of topics related to aging in adulthood.
Participants also were asked what led to their interest in working with older persons. Responses ranged from practical concerns (e.g., needing to build up one's practice, seeing gerontology as a field with opportunity for expansion) to personal ones (e.g., growing awareness of one's own or close others' aging). Several respondents also mentioned having had close and surprisingly gratifying personal relationships with relatively old persons and coming to feel that working professionally with older people would enable them to continue to derive a similar sense or gratification.
We also questioned the participants about their professional aspirations. Most frequently noted was the hope of working in a nursing home setting. Other ideas included engaging in gerontological research, doing testing with older persons, leading groups for older clients, becoming more involved in administration, developing and overseeing program development projects, working with terminally ill persons, specializing in behavior management and building a private practice with more older clients. These responses suggest that people who attend workshops such as these clearly see a positive future in gerontology, and that there is considerable diversity among the career paths people wish to travel within the field of aging.
Given the range of career interests among the participants, we wondered what specific topics would draw them to future workshops. Of all the questions we asked participants, this one generated the greatest number of different responses. Among the more popular responses were: psychological assessment, behavior management, diagnostic issues, family issues, working with persons with dementia, general principles of psychotherapy with older persons, treatment of depression in later life, pharmacology in relation to psychological functioning in older persons, the interface of medical and psychological processes among older persons, working with resistant older persons, and learning to work among interdisciplinary teams. Clearly, there is ample material here for future continuing education workshops.
To direct comments about the information contained in these pages, please write to marsiske@ufl.edu