News
Dean Davison Commits to Improve Healthcare for Elders
APA's Council of Representatives adopts blueprint for upgrading healthcare for older Amerians
The American Psychological Association's (APA) Presidential Taskforce
On Integrated Healthcare for an Aging Population recently issued a report that advises psychologists on how to work with other healthcare professionals to ensure that older adults receive effective healthcare.
As an APA Fellow, Gerald C. Davison, dean of the USC Davis School, served on a technical advisory committee for this task force. Its principle aim is to disseminate recommendations to establish new standards for healthcare of older adults within the field of psychology and beyond.
 Gerald C. Davison |
"It's an important mission for psychologists, even those who don't identify formally with gerontology," Davison said. "Psychology, in both its scientific and applied aspects, has a lot to offer older adults and health professionals, and over the years the Davis School has been a leader in what has come to be called clinical geropsychology."
The organization's recent report, Blueprint for Change: Achieving Integrated Healthcare for an Aging Population addresses the challenge of how healthcare for older adults can best be planned and delivered.
The document, available online at http://www.apa.org/pi/aging/blueprint.html, outlines the broad dissemination of recommendations to psychologists, other healthcare and aging professionals, education and training programs, government agencies and policymakers.
Fact sheets will be developed for three audiences: 1) policymakers - to make clear psychologists' involvement in and contributions to this expanding model of care, 2) graduate faculty and training directors - to provide guidance on how to shape and develop careers that would emphasize care for older adults in integrated settings, and 3) older adults and their families- to provide information and skills to improve coordination of their care.
At the 2008 APA Convention to be held this August 14-17 in Boston, Massachusetts, a symposium entitled, Best Practices of Integrated Care:Opportunities and Challenges, will highlight models of integrated care for older adults, marginalized populations, individuals with disabilities and HIV patients with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders. |
