Geropsychologists provide psychological assessment and intervention to older adults and their families, as well as consultation services to other health care professionals.
Despite its modest beginnings, by 1952, the annual meeting of the Adult Development and Aging Division was held jointly with the Gerontological Society in Washington, D.C. At this meeting, Harold Jones, a lifespan psychologist and director of the California-based Institute of Child Welfare, addressed the conference and argued for the establishment of "A national institute on the problems of aging."
[5] In 1959, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) established a section devoted to aging, and appointed James Emmett Birren, PhD, as chief of this division.
[5] In 1971, a White House Conference on Aging found that the education and training of health professionals working with older adults was urgently warranted.
Recognizing the dearth of training opportunities for geriatric clinicians and researchers, the Adult Development and Aging Division, with support from the APA and funding from the NIA, assembled a task force in November 1977 to "assess the psychological needs of older adults and provide recommendations concerning the involvement of psychologists in mental health services to the older populations.
At this conference, psychologists began discussing the knowledge base of geropsychology and how this information could be taught to new geropsychologists.
"[9] Older Boulder's organizers stressed the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to aging training, and thus, they encouraged general psychologists, geropsychologists, non-psychology gerontologists, consumers and students to attend the conference.
Most importantly, Older Boulder was a key first step to creating a training model for competencies for geropsychologists.
[15] The Pikes Peak model coalesced the information already known about older adults and applied it to the establishment of competency areas for the training of geropsychologists.
For example, the model highlighted the need for training programs to educate students to differentiate between healthy and pathological aging, normative changes associated with later life, cohort effects, general knowledge about adult development, and various care settings for older adults, especially interdisciplinary care.
[16] The Society's mission is fostering the mental health and wellness of older adults through science, practice, education and advocacy and by advancing the field of professional geropsychology.