Peter A. Lichtenberg

Wayne State School of Medicine

Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan

The Department of Veterans Affairs is providing great leadership in the area of geropsychology in 1996. The updated edition of the Geropsychology Assessment Resource Guide is now available to the public. This update came on the heels of a very successful 1993 edition of the guide. Assessment instruments are described and critiqued in the areas of personality and affect, functional ability, cognition, psychosocial function, and special purpose instruments. The information provided in each summary describes the purpose of the instrument, who can administer the tool, and time needed. Also documented are advantages and disadvantages over other tests. Vendors addresses and phone numbers are listed as well as costs for the materials. Finally, the summary lists citations of research with the instrument in which older were used. Whereas the original edition was 155 pages of assessment instruments, the current edition is over 20 pages. The inclusion of new instruments, and the expanded reviews of the instruments provided in the original edition make the 1996 guide one to acquire. Copies can be purchased at the following address: United States Department of Commerce, National Technical Information Service, 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, VA 22161, or call the sales desk at (703) 487-4650. The order number is PB96-144365LEU, Feb. 96, 303 p[p. The cost is $49.00 for a paper copy and $19.50 for microfiche.

The Department of Veteran Affairs has also organized a Technical Advisory Group for Geropsychology. The mission of this group is to develop some practice guidelines for aspects of geropsychology. The group surveyed Division 20 members through the E-mail network (thank you Michael Marsiske) and received several responses. With that information, along with feedback from several other sources, the Technical Advisory Group will focus its efforts initially on developing practice guidelines for competency assessments. Division 20 members interested in giving input on this topic should contact me.

Giving Psychology Away: Is it a good practice?

Pat Parmelee led a 1995 GSA symposium titled "The inseparability of physical and mental health problems" in which she and her colleagues chronicled the comorbid affective and cognitive problems that accompany illness in older adults. Geriatric healthcare settings do represent an excellent place to practice geropsychology, and it has been my privilege to spend the last 5 1/2 years delivering psychological services to older adult medical rehabilitation inpatients. Healthcare changes are challenging the models of geropsychology practice. Downsizing often leads to fewer psychologists, less time for direct service delivery, and an increased emphasis on consultation. Seeing this trend led me to conduct a preliminary clinical trial of behavioral depression treatment for older adults medical rehabilitation patients. Along with a no treatment control group, and a group receiving behavioral treatment from a psychologist, we trained a group of occupational therapists to incorporate a protocol of behavioral treatment into their occupational therapy session. Thirty seven patients made up our sample, and the results were encouraging. Self-reported symptoms of depression improved in both treatment groups, but did not improve in the no treatment group. ADL activities improved significantly more in the occupational therapy treatment group as compared to the no treatment group. We published a description of the behavioral treatment in a 1995 issue of The Gerontologist, (vol. 3, 688-690), and the empirical results of our paper are in press with the Clinical Gerontologist.

Discussing this study with colleagues has brought out mixed reactions - from excitement to seeing new models of depression treatment being implemented, to deep concerns about non-mental health professionals treating depression. I am most interested in receiving more feedback on this issue.

To direct comments about the information contained in these pages, please write to marsiske@ufl.edu