Conferences

Today I attended the Innovations in Aging Summit, held in downtown Colorado Springs. The main goals of the summit were to "start a community conversation on how to make Colorado Springs a remarkable place to age" and to "lay groundwork for building a desired blueprint for aging in our community."

I participated in the urban planning and transportation breakout group. We came up with several ideas on how to more effectively use the existing transportation here and restructure our community to make it more senior-friendly. 

Among the ideas we discussed, two really jumped out at me, including better use of technology (e.g., developing an on-line transportation request system) and integrating people in the "aging" community with others who have difficulty with transporation (e.g., people with physical or mental disabilities, under-employed individuals).

Participating in the breakout group helped me to realize the potential role of psychologists in revamping transportation, not only in this region, but in the country as a whole. Specifically, once people are educated about different transportation options, psychologists can help to facilitate behavior change (e.g., getting a community to decide to walk to the store rather than drive).

I'm in Atlanta, GA this week-end for the annual Gerontological Society of America conference. All the presentations I've seen so far have been fantastic.

One of the best things about this conference is the interdisciplinary nature of the programming. Yesterday, I saw a paper presentation by Meldrena Chapin, Ph.D. who identifies herself as an Architectual Gerontologist (who even knew a field like that exists?). She spoke about culture-change in long term care, and her presentation will be uploaded to her website soon.

Earlier this month I attended the second biannual Diversity and Aging conference in Chicago sponsored by AARP. The theme of the conference was "The Power of Inclusion." This conference had a much wider scope than most of the conferences I usually attend, with presentations ranging from identifying activities for people with dementia, to health literacy and access for immigrants and refugees, to marketing to 50+ diverse populations.

I was fortunate to be chosen as one of six graduate student Conference Fellows. As a Fellow, one of my tasks was to write a summary of the presentations I attended, which will be included in the conference proceedings. 

The next AARP Diversity and Aging conference will take place in 2011 in Washington, DC.

Today marked the end of the fifth and final Aging and Mental Health Conference, hosted by the Gerontology Center at UCCS. The topic of this year's conference was "Integrated Health Care for Older Adults." The conference co-chairs were Sara Honn Qualls, Ph.D. and Deborah King, Ph.D. of the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, NY.

Integrated mental health care essentially referrs to mental health services that are delivered in non-traditional settings, such as primary care clinics and long-term care facilities. This can make mental health services accessible to individuals who may not otherwise access mental health treatment because of barriers such as inadequate financial resources, stigma associated with mental health, and limited transportation. In a primary care clinic, for instance, the idea is that physical and mental health are treated together to help improve the quality of life of patients, breaking down the separation of body and mind that often exists in Western medicine.

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.

The Psychological Society of the Pikes Peak Region sponsored a conference today titled "The Science of Change: Translating What Works in Therapy." Barry Duncan, Psy.D., co-director of the Institute for the Study of Therapeutic Change, challenged recent trends in the field of mental health that emphasize treatment methods over other factors responsible for psychotherapy outcome. From his years of experience as a practitioner and review of the literature, he has come to a few conclusions:

- the therapeutic alliance is more important for psychotherapy outcome than the theoretical orientation of the service provider (e.g., clients generally don't remember what brilliant techniques we use in therapy, but how well we build a relationship with them)

- evidence based treatments aren't "bad," but overemphasized in the field of mental health and should be used on a client-by-client basis (taking into consideration client characteristics, culture, and preferences)

- most of the outcome variance in psychotherapy is due to client/extratherapeutic factors (i.e., something that happens outside of the therapy hour that helps a client to change)

- therapeutic power does not come out of identifying what clients need, but in identifying their strengths and resources that can be put to use in reaching their goals (Dr. Duncan calls this "finding the heroic client," my clinical supervisor calls it "being curious")

- asking clients what they'd like to do to deal with their problems and asking for feedback on how they think they are progressing throughout therapy improves the quality and outcome of services

In February 2008, I attended the Winter Roundtable on Cultural Psychology and Education. Held annually at Teachers College, Columbia University, this conference is dedicated to cultural issues in psychology and education and attracts researchers, practitioners, and students. The theme of this year’s conference was, “25 Years of Racial-Cultural Issues in Psychology and Education: Honoring the Past and Anticipating the Future.” Dr. Michelle Fine from City University of New York (CUNY) was the recipient of the annual Social Justice Action award.