Barbara Alexander, LCSW, BCD, president of On Good Authority, interviews three experts who work with older adults. Bob Knight, PhD, discusses methods of assessing older adults and explains how to complete a therapeutic life review. He also summarizes how the treatment of the older adult differs from that of the younger adult.

Mary Ann Wolinsky, MSW, outlines how retirement and illness can force older couples to work through of lifetime marital conflicts, and Nancy Osgood, PhD, presents methods of assessing and identifying early signs of suicide in the elderly.

Format: Asynchronous, distance learning. Non-interactive. Recorded audio with transcript.

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Subject Matter Experts:

Dr. Bob Knight is the Merle H. Bensinger Professor of Gerontology and Psychology at the Andrus Gerontology Center, University of Southern California. In that position, he serves as Director of the Tingstad Older Adult Counseling Center and Co-Director of the Los Angeles Caregiver Resource Center. Prior to joining the faculty at U.S.C., Dr. Knight managed the senior services program at Ventura County, California, Mental Health Services. He has published extensively in mental health and aging, including Psychotherapy with Older Adults and Older Adults in Psychotherapy: Case Histories. He is the senior editor of Mental Health Services for Older Adults: Implications for Training and Practice in Geropsychology and co-edited A Guide to Psychotherapy and Aging: Effective Clinical Interventions in a Life-Stage Context. In 1997 he served as the President of Section 2, Division 12 (Clinical Geropsychology), of the American Psychological Association.

Mary Ann Wolinsky, MSW, is a clinical social worker in private practice in Houston, Texas. For six years she was the coordinator of services to older persons at a local family service agency. During that time Ms. Wolinsky worked extensively with older individuals and couples. As a result of her work with this clientele, Ms. Wolinsky has published articles in professional journals on counseling with older people and their families, and she has published a book on the subject entitled, A Heart of Wisdom, Marital Counseling With Older and Elderly Couples. She presents workshops and provides in-service training to community and professional groups and has served as Vice-President of Development on the Houston Board of the Alzheimer's' Association. She is a member of the National Association of Social Workers, Houston, Task Force on Aging.

Dr. Nancy Osgood is professor of gerontology and sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia, where she has been teaching and doing research for the past fourteen years. From 1989 to 1992, Dr. Osgood was director of an AOA-funded statewide model detection and prevention program for geriatric alcoholism in Virginia. Her anti-drug efforts were well recognized in the state by Governor Douglas Wilder, who declared the third week of November as Substance Abuse Awareness Week for Elder Virginians and who continued the project begun by Dr. Osgood for two additional years using state funds to complete the work. Dr. Osgood is an internationally sought after speaker and has authored and co-authored numerous articles, book chapters, and books on the topic of suicide in the elderly, substance abuse and aging, retirement housing for the elderly, recreation leisure and the elderly, and creative arts in aging.

Dr. Osgood is the author of a book on elderly suicide entitled, Suicide In Later Life, Recognizing the Warning Signs. In August of 1984, Dr. Osgood was one of a thousand women invited by President Ronald Regan to the White House to celebrate the Proclamation of Women's Equality Day. In 1995 Dr. Osgood co-authored with Helen Wood and Iris Parm a book entitled, Alcoholism and Aging: An Annotated Bibliography and Review.

Interviewer:

Barbara Alexander, LCSW, BCD, is a graduate of the Smith College School for Social Work and the Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Program of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. After working for 13 years in child psychiatric settings and 30 years in private practice, she is now founder and president of On Good Authority, and an expert interviewer.

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