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Essay on Geriatric Psychology
Geriatric Psychology is a specialty area within Clinical Psychology devoted to meeting the psychological assessment and treatment needs of older adults. Psychologists with specialty training in geriatrics are called Geropsychologists. Geropsychologists are trained to recognize potential causes of psychological difficulties in older adults and to provide effective treatment in order to improve the individuals’ quality of life.
Older adults sometimes find themselves dealing with medical illness, physical limitation, and/or social loss not encountered earlier in life. Therefore, psychological problems of this age group most often involve depression, anxiety, and adjustment disorders. Sometimes these difficulties develop as a natural reaction to losses or limitations. However, depression and anxiety can also be associated with medical illnesses, such as heart disease or diabetes, or can occur as a side effect of medication (Pruchno, Moss, Burant, Schinfeld, 1995).
Most older adults see a psychologist only when referred by their physician, who has detected symptoms of psychological difficulties. Often, Geropsychologists work together with the physician to determine the best course of treatment. Sometimes, symptoms of depression and anxiety can mimic physical illness. For example, depression often presents as excessive fatigue and feelings of malaise in the older adult. Thus, once comprehensive medical evaluation has ruled out medical illness, adequate treatment of anxiety and depression can often reduce the number of additional visits to the doctor’s office and may prevent unnecessary medical tests (Orbach, Weiner, Har-Even, Eshel, 1994).
Sometimes psychological difficulties can have an impact on others around the older individual, such as their spouse, thus creating the need to include others, e.g. family members, in the older adults’ treatment. This is especially true when the condition faced by the individual is progressive, such as in the case of Alzheimer’s disease. Effective psychological interventions with older people, their families, and their health care providers can greatly improve an individual’s quality of life (Norton, Talerico, 2000).....................
