Twenty Years a-Growing: Some Current Issues in Behavioural Psychotherapy with Elderly People

Abstract

Over the past few years, there has been increasing availability of effective behavioural psychotherapies for use with elderly people. Notably, procedures developed with younger adults have been found effective with elderly clients. However, the needs of people with dementia are still only partially met. Some therapies are used that are of questionable benefit, while possibilities based on sound theoretical bases have been largely ignored. Given that the targets of intervention for people with dementia are likely to be wide ranging, and certainly include the needs of families and of other caring systems, and of their effective functioning, behavioural interventions must address these wider issues, which may well include behavioural methods applied to systemic change.