Providing educational interventions to informal dementia caregivers has been shown to have numerous positive outcomes including improving general well-being and quality of life as well as reducing depression, anxiety, and caregiver stress. The purpose of this study is the development, delivery, and evaluation of caregiver conferences to educate…

The need for clinical geropsychologists currently exceeds their availability, and this imbalance is expected to worsen along with the impending growth in the older adult population. Effective geropsychology mentoring may be helpful in meeting this challenge. However, little is known about mentoring within clinical geropsychology. The present paper…

Medical care in nursing homes is not provided by board-licensed geriatricians; it mainly comes from physicians in need of educational programs in the field of geriatrics. Such programs, based on curriculum guidelines, should be developed. The purpose of this study was to seek input from nursing home physicians on their perceived needs for training…

Responses from 159 of 837 health and mental health professionals in Alaska showed the following: (1) 54% said community services for the aging were inadequate; (2) 55% felt health professionals' knowledge of aging was insufficient; and (3) 91.8% needed further training in aging and geriatrics, especially regarding mental health and Alzheimer's…

Three focus groups of service agency representatives, state administrators, and rural service providers in Georgia identified their needs for geriatrics training, and barriers to accessing training. Results underscored the need for coordinated continuing-education planning. (SK)

In a needs assessment of 84 rural health care professionals (44.1% physicians, 15.5% pharmacists, 14.3% nurses, 26.1% other), 39% considered their geriatrics knowledge above average. They were interested in learning more about Alzheimer's/dementia, medication use, and adverse effects. Preferred methods were videotapes, CD-ROM, and an…