FOCUS ON AGING
Geropsychology focuses on the medical, psychological and social concerns that face older adults, their families and their caregivers.
The most common psychiatric disorders of aging are anxiety or depression, delirium, dementia, delusions, hallucinations and behavioral problems.
Memory loss is also very common and has an impact on the patient and their family members.
RESOURCES
Find a psychologist in your area for your unique concerns.
Associations & Institutes
Alameda County Psychological Association
American Psychiatric Association
American Psychological Association
California Psychological Association
National Institute of Mental Health
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Alzheimer’s Association of the East Bay –
www.aseb.org
Family support group
Caregiver support group
Case management
Professional social work services
Physical therapy
Occupational therapy
Speech therapy
Medical monitoring by Registered Nurse (RN)
Medication monitoring and administration by RN
Dietary consultation
Family Caregiver Alliance –
www.caregiver.org
180 Montgomery St, Ste 1100, San Francisco, CA 94104
phone: (415) 434.3388 . (800) 445.8106
Support groups for specific illnesses, for example Parkinson’s Disease, Cancer, Multiple sclerosis
Spanish speakers support group
Gay/Lesbian caregivers
Support group for Long Distance caregivers
24 hour online caregiver support group
Respite options
Newsletter
Information and Referral service
Adult Day Health Care
(510) 577-3543 –
www.adsnac.org
15 sites throughout Alameda County
Some bilingual, bicultural programs
UC Berkeley Resource Center on Aging
(510) 643-6427
www.socrates.berkeley.edu
“The Center is the coordinating mechanism for activities in aging on the UC Berkeley campus and also serves as a clearinghouse for information on aging activities both on and off campus.”
Newsletter
Employment services & job listings
Political advocacy
Seminars and training in geriatrics for professionals
Child Abuse and Domestic Violence
Childhelp USA®
SAMHSA’s Children and Families
SAMHSA’s Protection and Advocacy
Questions and Answers about Memories of Childhood Abuse
The National Domestic Violence Hotline Website
Women, Violence and Trauma
Jewish Family & Children’s Services –
East Bay (510) 704-7475
Older adult workshops
Cancer support groups
Support group for long-distance caregivers
Group for Holocaust survivors
Adult children of Holocaust Survivors support group
Men over 65 years of age support group
Grief group
Diagnosis
DSM-IV-TR: Diagnoses and Criteria
Medications
Medical Dictionary
Medications, FDA
Medications, PDR
Medline, Comparison
SAMHSA’s Psychiatry and Psychology
Mental Health Care General Links
Let’s Talk Facts, APA
Mental Illnesses/Disorders
Online Dictionary of Mental Health
PsychCentral.com
University of Michigan Health Topics A to Z
Suicide Awareness and Hotlines
THE GOLD CELL
I Go Back to May 1937
I see them standing at the
formal gates of their colleges,
I see my father strolling out
under the ochre sandstone arch,
the red tiles glinting like bent
plates of blood behind his head,
I see my mother with a few
light books at her hip
standing at the pillar
made of tiny bricks
with the wrought-iron gate
still open behind her,
its sword-tips black
in the May air,
they are about to graduate,
they are about to get married,
they are kids,
they are dumb,
all they know
is they are innocent,
they would never hurt anybody.
I want to go up to them and say
Stop, don’t do it –
she’s the wrong woman,
he’s the wrong man,
you are going to do things
you cannot imagine
you would ever do,
you are going to do
bad things to children,
you are going to suffer
in ways you never heard of,
you are going to want to die.
I want to go up to them
there in the late May sunlight
and say it,
her hungry pretty blank face
turning to me,
her pitiful beautiful
untouched body,
his arrogant handsome
blind face
turning to me,
his pitiful beautiful
untouched body,
but I don’t do it.
I want to live.
I take them up like the
male and female paper dolls
and bang them together
at the hips like chips of flint
as if to strike sparks from them,
I say
Do what you are going to do,
and I will tell about it.
– Sharon Olds
Alfred A. Knopf, New York: 1994