Abstract
Older adults comprise a rapidly increasing proportion of the population in the United States. In 1980, 9.9% of the population was 65 or older; between the 1960 and 1970 censuses, the number of aged increased 21.1% (Brotman, 1973). Pfeiffer (1980) reports that 11% of our population is over age 65, and 25% of these persons are thought to have psychological difficulties warranting professional attention. Approximately 25% of all suicides in this country are committed by persons over age 65 (Butler & Lewis, 1977). There is a well-documented gap, however, between the mental health needs of the elderly and the provision of services to meet these needs (Zarit, 1980). At least two-thirds of all psychologists do not work clinically with elderly clients (VandenBos, Stapp, & Kilberg, 1981). Only 4 to 5% of the case load in outpatient mental health clinics consists of elderly clients (Redick & Taube, 1980), and an even smaller percentage of elders are thought to be treated by private practitioners (Gottfredson & Dyer, 1978).
This chapter was supported in part by grants R01-MH37196 and T01-MH17621 from the National Institute of Mental Health.
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Breckenridge, J.S., Thompson, L.W., Breckenridge, J.N., Gallagher, D.E. (1985). Behavioral Group Therapy with the Elderly. In: Upper, D., Ross, S.M. (eds) Handbook of Behavioral Group Therapy. Applied Clinical Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4958-7_10
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