Graduate Training in Geropsychology Among Licensed Psychologists in Illinois

Recently, it has been suggested that several factors will likely lead to an increase in the number of elderly Americans in need of psychological services. In June, 1981, the Older Boulder Conference addressed the need to implement graduate level training of psychologists to serve elderly clients. It was found that after the Conference: 1) more graduate courses on geropsychology were taken by psychologists during their graduate training; 2) most psychologists either had no or 75% or more elderly clients; and 3) psychologists were more likely to have sought out post graduate continuing education in geropsychology yet they were less likely to have received it during their training. The ethical implications, the strengths and weaknesses of psychologists\u27 graduate training programs, and recommendations for effective training techniques are discussed