Geropsychology Mentoring: A Survey of Current Practices and Perceived Needs.

The need for clinical geropsychologists currently exceeds the 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 reports on a survey of mentoring practices and needs. Findings indicate that a large majority of clinical geropsychology trainees and professionals at all levels have a mentor and that the contributions mentors make are highly valued. Among the needs identified by survey respondents was guidance for effective mentoring. Results of the survey suggest that efforts to enhance mentoring within clinical geropsychology may contribute to the goal of expanding the workforce to meet future needs.

Mentoring in Clinical Geropsychology: Across the Stages of Professional Development.

Projected growth in demand for clinical geropsychologists will require expanding the number of qualified geropsychology mentors at all stages of professional development. This special section provides information on mentoring from expert geropsychology mentors who offer their perspectives, and summarize relevant research, on mentoring graduate students, interns and postdoctoral fellows, junior faculty and members of special populations. The present paper provides an introduction to the special section by establishing the need for increased mentoring within clinical geropsychology, presenting results of a survey of mentoring practices and needs, and discussing ways in which the field is responding to the challenge.

Vascular risk and depression in the Hispanic Established Population for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly (EPESE).

OBJECTIVE: Although vascular depression has received considerable research attention, relatively little research in this area has focused on minority samples. This study investigated the association between baseline vascular risk factors (VRFs) and risk for elevated depressive symptoms at 2-year follow-up in a sample of 964 individuals without significant depressive symptomotology (CES-D < 12) or cognitive impairment (MMSE>or= 24) at baseline from the Hispanic Established Population for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly. METHODS: We examined the associations between self-reported baseline vascular risk factors (chest pain, heart attack, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, and smoking) and a composite of these risk factors with elevated depressive symptoms (CES-D >or= 16) at 2-year follow-up. RESULTS: Seventy-four (7.7%) of the 964 participants without evidence of depression at baseline demonstrated elevated depressive symptoms (CESD >or= 16) 2 years later. There was an overall pattern of higher rates of elevated depressive symptoms at 2-year follow-up with increasing number of vascular risk factors (0 VRFs = 6.4%, 1 VRF = 5.5%, 2 VRFs = 7.7%, and 3 or more VRFs = 14.7%). After controlling for demographic variables, physical functioning, and other medical conditions, the cumulative vascular risk index was significantly associated with elevated depressive symptoms at 2-year follow-up (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest vascular conditions may contribute to risk for depression over time among Mexican American elders, and this is relatively independent of other medical conditions. These findings suggest that depression is an additional long-term complication of these common cardiovascular disorders.