Meghan Marty

Caregivers of people with dementia have to make countless decisions throughout their caregiving career. One of the decisions that isn't frequently discussed is how to assist a care recipient with the process of voting. The Alzheimer's Association has posted an article with points for caregivers to consider and tips for facilitating the vote of someone with dementia.

My first official publication came out this week in a local newspaper for seniors, Life After 50. The article addressed several misconceptions about psychotherapy, what to expect during therapy, and some reasons for why older adults seek therapy. The benefits of therapy can include increased quality of life and sense of emotional well-being for individuals at any age.

National Family Caregivers Month, organized by the National Family Caregivers Association, is "designated as a time of year to thank, support, educate, and empower family caregivers." This year's theme encourages caregivers to speak up for their rights.

For interesting facts about caregiving, see Selected Caregiver Statistics on the Family Caregiver Alliance website.

The New York Times had an interesting article today about the detrimental impact that "elderspeak" has on older adults.

One form of elderspeak includes belittling an older adult by calling him or her "sweetie" or "dear." When I hear someone use these terms with an older adult, it conveys the message that the person using the terms views the senior as cute and/or docile and, basically, on the same intellectual level as a child.

Another form of elderspeak includes ignoring the older adult altogether and asking his or her companion questions they are perfectly able to answer (e.g., what they'd like to eat for lunch). I experienced this as a master's student in my fieldwork placement. An older woman fell on her way into the senior center and I was asked to accompany her to the urgent care clinic. When we arrived, the nurse began asking me questions about the woman's condition, even though the older woman was completely lucid (and I had known her for about 20 minutes!). 

Click here to read about similar experiences of others and how they've dealt with them.

A substantial literature has documented that sexual abuse relates to suicidal behaviors but relatively less is known about resilience to suicide, especially cognitive deterrents to suicide.

The present study investigated the effects of a history of sexual victimization on reasons for living. Female participants (N = 138; M age = 24.4 years, SD = 7.3 years; range = 18 to 53 years; 79% Caucasian) completed the Sexual Experiences Survey (SES) and the Reasons For Living (RFL) Inventory. According to SES responses, participants were classified into 5 mutually exclusive groups: no victimization, sexual contact, sexual coercion, attempted rape, and rape. ANOVAs showed that degree of sexual victimization had a significant effect on the RFL Total scale and 2 subscales (Survival and Coping Beliefs; Moral Objections). The general pattern was that mean RFL scores in the no victimization group were significantly higher than the mean scores in the sexual coercion and rape groups.

An implication is that having a history of sexual victimization, especially sexual coercion and rape, limits one’s later reasons for not committing suicide. Bolstering these modifiable deterrents to suicide should be part of suicide prevention efforts among at-risk women.

I love coming across individuals who have figured out how to age successfully, whether I know them personally or learn about them in some other way.

Adolph "Sonny Boy" Kiefer is most likely the swimming legend you never heard of. A gold-medal winner in the 1936 Olympics, his swimming career was cut short by World War II. He went on to become a naval officer, invent the nylon swimsuit, and faciliate the construction of public pools across Chicago. Today, at age 90, he swims 45 minutes every morning before going into his office!

The topic of this year's National Clinical Geropsychology Conference, hosted by the Gerontology Center at UCCS, was "End-of-Life Care and Bereavement." The conference co-chairs were Sara Honn Qualls, PhD and Julia Kasl-Godley, PhD. The keynote speaker, Shirley Otis-Green, MSW, spoke about "Building Your Legacy: Making Time Count," and urged the audience to consider what we can do now to influence our professional and personal legacy.

In the U.S., older adults have a disproportionally high rate of completed suicide as compared to the general population, with white men over the age of 85 being at greatest risk (National Center for Health Statistics, 2007). The state of Colorado has similar trends (The Colorado Trust, 2002). Compared with other age groups, older adults are more likely to use firearms as their choice of suicide method, which more often results in death (Steffens & Blazer, 1998).

As mental health practitioners and researchers, we typically focus on the psychosocial cause(s) of suicide, usually associated with the presence of risk factors, to guide our suicide prevention interventions. In reviewing the literature for my thesis, I discovered the general consensus that suicidal individuals are poor problem-solvers; that is, they tend to see one solution, and one solution only, to their problems.

However, a recent article in the New York Times ("The Urge to End It All"), highlighted the importance of focusing on the method of suicide in prevention efforts. By simply creating physical barriers to suicide, the risk of completed suicide can be mitigated. Ironically, this may be due in part to the poor problem-solving abilities of those who attempt suicide. If an obstacle is put in the way (e.g., keeping guns in a locked case or putting some time in-between the thought and the act), the individual is less likely to go through with it.

If you (or somebody you know) are suicidal, the best thing to do is call 911 or a suicide prevention hotline (like 1-800-273-TALK) or go to the nearest emergency room.

One of programs I was involved in at the CU Aging Center this year was the At Home Mental Health Service program. We partner with a local social service agency for seniors to provide therapy for clients in their homes. These individuals typically have a number of physical or emotional problems that make it difficult for them to leave their homes to obtain services.

Some things I learned through my work in this program:

1) It's OK to set boundaries: For example, asking clients to put pets in another room or not to smoke during the session is not selfish or too demanding, rather it's a way for me to take care of myself in order to give my full attention to the needs of my clients.

2) Therapy goals can never be too clear: This is particularly relevant with older clients who are dealing with loneliness. Sometimes I was seen as a "visitor" coming for social reasons. While increased social contact may be helpful in and of itself this may not be the best use of a therapist's skills.

3) Good supervision is essential: Of course supervision is always necessary, but it's especially important when dealing with complex clients. It was extremely helpful to have a team of peers and more experienced clinicians to discuss cases with and a place where I could admit I had no idea of what I was doing!

4) A lot of older adults who could benefit from therapy are out of the "reach" of traditional services: Several of the clients who I worked with through this program probably would have never engaged in therapy if it meant weekly trips to a clinic to meet with a therapist.

Though challenging, my participation in the At Home program was a valuable experience in helping me to develop as a therapist.

Last week I successfully proposed my thesis project titled, "Coping Strategies, Suicidal Risk, and Protective Factors Against Suicide in Older Adults." The goals of this study are to investigate coping abilities in older adults and how those relate to suicidal ideation and cognitive deterrents to suicide. We've already begun data collection and hope to have the study completed by the end of the year. Thank you to my committee (Daniel L. Segal, Ph.D., Frederick L. Coolidge, Ph.D., and Brian Yochim, Ph.D.) for all of their thoughtful comments and questions.