Health Bias in Clinical Work with Older Adult Clients: The Relation with Ageism and Aging Anxiety.

OBJECTIVES: This experimental study examined health bias in mental health trainees' ratings of work with an older adult client and whether differences based on health were moderated by aging anxiety and ageist attitudes. METHODS: Graduate-level mental health trainees (N = 488) were randomly assigned to read a vignette of an older adult client in good health or poor health, after which they rated aspects of clinical work with this client and completed measures of aging anxiety and ageist attitudes. RESULTS: Trainees rated clinical work with the unhealthy older adult client more negatively than with the healthy older adult client. Health-based differences were larger at average and higher levels of ageist attitudes when considering the appropriateness of the client for therapy and at average and higher levels of aging anxiety for perceived competence to treat and comfort in treating the presenting complaint. CONCLUSIONS: Trainees' health bias toward older adults may be magnified by higher aging anxiety and ageist attitudes. Training programs' intervention on these variables may improve geropsychological competencies of future mental health professionals. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Quality of mental health care for older adult clients may be compromised when biases about older adults, particularly those in poor health, are not addressed.

Experiences with and attitudes toward interprofessional health care teams among American clinical, counseling, and school psychology doctoral students: a mixed methods study.

Attitudes toward interprofessional collaboration influence interprofessional health care team (IPHCT) functioning and quality of patient care. Yet, research has not examined the attitudes and experiences of psychology doctoral students on IPHCTs. Utilizing a volunteer sample of 214 clinical, counseling, and school psychology doctoral students from at least 47 doctoral programs in the United States, this study aimed to clarify psychology doctoral students' experiences on IPHCTs and explore predictors of their attitudes toward IPHCTs. Discovery-oriented analysis and hierarchical multiple regression were used to identify themes of students' self-reported interprofessional experiences and significant predictors of positive attitudes obtained via online survey questionnaires. Students who had worked on IPHCTs commonly reported taking roles of mental health therapeutic service provision and consultation and reported difficulty with team dynamics and navigating hierarchical structures. Students perceived the psychologist role primarily as clinical expert and team leader. Students reported making positive contributions, increased competency in interprofessional practice, and improvement in patient care as the most common benefits of IPHCTs. Each additional year spent on an IPHCT was related to more positive perceptions of the quality of care delivered by IPHCTs as well as greater endorsement of positive interprofessional socialization practices.