Interdisciplinary neuropalliative care: A unique and valuable clinical training experience for geropsychology trainees

ABSTRACT

To address workforce issues in professional geropsychology, clinical training sites must offer opportunities to build skills for working with older adults and aging families. Neuropalliative care (NPC) may offer a valuable learning environment for geropsychology trainees to develop professional competencies, while positively contributing to patient care. This article describes a novel clinical rotation for an advanced geropsychology trainee in an interdisciplinary specialty NPC clinic. A co-assessment model emerged as a useful strategy for integrating the trainee into the established NPC team. Two case examples illustrate the co-assessment’s ability to enhance: collaboration within the clinic; psychological care for patients and care partners; and opportunities for the trainee to build competencies related to assessment, intervention, teams, and consultation. This paper concludes with a discussion of the benefits of NPC as a clinical training rotation for geropsychology trainees, as well as practical considerations for implementation in other clinics.

KEYWORDS:

• Geropsychology
• neuropalliative care
• clinical training
• integrated care

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute on Aging [Grant No. T32AG044296].