Psychological Assessment and Therapy with Older Adults

Due to improvements in health and healthcare, the elderly population is expanding rapidly within the developed world. However, more and more elderly people require some form of psychological support at some point in their later years. The types of problems faced by this population are quite distinct and often more complex than those faced by younger adults, and throw up many new challenges - in both assessment and treatment. Though there are books available that focus individually on assessment or treatment, few have combined the two into a single framework. Within this book Knight and Pachana argue that psychological assessment needs to be more tightly integrated with therapy, especially with older adult clients. Using the Contextual Adult Lifespan Theory for Adapting Psychotherapy (CALTAP) as a framework for applying our knowledge about developmental, social contextual, and cohort/generational factors that influence age differences in response to psychological assessment and therapy, they present an integrated framework for psychological assessment and therapy with older adults. This text is valuable for practitioners looking for a solid theoretical basis for the practice of assessment and therapy with older clients, students in graduate courses looking at later lifespan issues, and educators looking for material to enhance generalist psychotherapy courses with a lifespan perspective.

About the Author

Bob G. Knight, Ph.D. is the Merle H. Bensinger Professor of Gerontology and Professor of Psychology at the Andrus Gerontology Center, University of Southern California. He is the Editor of the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences (2012-2015). He also serves as Director of the Tingstad Older Adult Counseling Center. He is the recipient of awards including Distinguished Clinical Mentorship Award, Society of Clinical Geropsychology (2005), Retirement Research Foundation M. Powell Lawton Distinguished Contribution Award in Applied Gerontology (2007, awarded by Division 20 of American Psychological Association), and the American Psychological Association's Committee on Aging Award for the Advancement of Psychology and Aging, 2009 He has published extensively in mental health and aging, including Psychotherapy with older adults (Sage, 3rd ed. 2004, available in French, Dutch, Japanese, and Chinese translations). Nancy A. Pachana, PhD is Professor and Director of Clinical Psychology Training Programs in the School of Psychology at The University of Queensland, and is co-director of the UQ Ageing Mind Initiative. A clinical geropsychologist and neuropsychologist with extensive experience in assessing and treating older adults, her main research interests include anxiety in later life, nursing home interventions and driving safety and dementia. Nancy is a recipient of the Australian Davos Connection (ADC) Future Summit Leadership Award, for leadership on ageing issues (2010). She has published extensively in the field of ageing and mental health and is the co-developer of the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory.