Cognitive Behaviour Therapy With Older People

Seeing older age as a time of loss and helplessness too often prevents therapists from providing treatments that can be of enormous benefit to older people.

Ken Laidlaw, Larry Thompson, Leah Dick-Siskin and Dolores Gallagher-Thompson draw upon their collective wealth of clinical experience to provide a comprehensive and practical guide to the applications of CBT to older adults.

Special features include:

• A new CBT model, effectively adapted from Beck's basic CBT model, for use with older adults.

• Numerous clinical examples of the usefulness of CBT to treat depression, anxiety, caregiver distress and sleep disturbances.

• Recommendations for treating depression co-morbid with common medical problems including stroke, Parkinson's disease, the dementias and arthritis.

• Specific recommendations for 'troubleshooting' frequent dilemmas, such as managing suicidality.

• Appendices containing blank examples of forms used within the text, and recommended self-help books and websites for further consultation.

"Cognitive Behaviour Therapy with Older People" is essential reading for all clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and related health professionals who work with older people.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is now well established as an effective treatment for a range of mental health problems, but for clinicians working with older clients, there are particular issues that need to be addressed.

Topics covered include the need to build a therapeutic relationship, dealing with stereotypical thinking about ageing, setting realistic expectations in the face of deteriorating medical conditions, maintaining hope when faced with difficult life events such as the loss of a spouse, disability, etc., and dealing with the therapist's own fears about ageing.

Illustrated throughout with case studies, practical solutions and with a troubleshooting section, this is essential reading for all clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and related health professionals who work with older people. Authors are world authorities on depression and psychotherapy with older people First book to be published on CBT with older people Case studies and examples used throughout to illustrate the method and the problems of older people