No – but there is a senior option whereby those geropsychologists with 15 or more years of serving older adults (in clinical services, teaching, administrative, and/or research capacities) are exempt from the education and supervision minimal requirements.
Obviously, any title of a course on the applicant’s transcript that has ‘aging’ or ‘older adult’ will most likely be viewed favorably as meeting this definition. Otherwise, the applicant needs to justify the inclusion of a particular course as meeting these criteria. For example, if someone took a neuropsychology course, it’s up to the candidate to ‘make a case’ that the course included a significant amount of age-related material.
One page per section i.e., total between 10-15 pages.
With the traditional option, the work examples should include videotapes, audiotapes, progress notes, or testing reports for which the candidate has done the major work. With the senior option, individuals submit materials showing how they have made significant contributions to geropsychology either via their own research, teaching, administration, or provision of clinical services.
Yes – just note this in the contextual statement that you include with the work examples.
With the traditional option, the work example should have been conducted not longer than two years prior to submission. There is no time limit for the senior option work examples.
Yes, the candidate can edit the work example, but all editing should be clearly highlighted.
Candidates will need to show that they are competent in the functional competencies of assessment, intervention, and consultation. To assist the reviewer with this task, candidates should include a contextual statement showing how their work examples reflect their competence in these areas.
No, candidates should submit work examples that reflect different functional competencies. For example, if the first work example reflects assessment competence, the next work example should reflect intervention or consultation competence. Perhaps best would be that candidates make a case in their contextual statements (for at least one of the two work examples) that they reflect competence in more than one area. For example, those who consult in a nursing home on a difficult assessment case could make the case that they are competent in both consultation and assessment domains.
No – the operative metric at ABPP is for an individual to show an ‘adequate’ level of competence. Indeed, for Work Examples, it is perfectly legitimate to ‘critique’ your performance and show how you might do things differently (i.e., adequately) with the benefit of hindsight.
The candidate should know their submitted materials very well vis a vis the foundational and functional competencies they will be tested on. The one portion of the test that candidates should spend time ‘studying’ would be the ethics portion i.e., knowing the APA ethical principles and standards and how they might relate to the ethical vignette(s) that they will be presented regarding older adults.
Yes, in addition to reading over the materials on the ABGERO Procedures manual, applicants are encouraged to complete the Tool for the Assessment of Competencies in Geropsychology. (Karel, M. J., Holley, C., Whitbourne, S. K., Segal, D. L., Tazeau, Y., Emery, E., Molinari, V., Yang, J., & Zweig, R. (2012). Preliminary validation of a tool to assess knowledge and skills for professional geropsychology practice. Professional Psychology: Research & Practice, 43(2), 110-117.) The Tool is available at Gero Central.
Oral exams typically take place at the ABPP annual workshop series in May (click here to see information), at APA, and at GSA. We now are making efforts to form regional examining teams.
As every geropsychologist knows, there is a dearth of mental health professionals who want to provide services to older adults. The purpose of the ABPP is to certify individuals who are competent in working with older adults. For those who are unable to reflect competence either due to education, prior supervision, work experiences etc., our aim is to provide resources (in progress) so that applicants will understand why they were deemed incompetent and then given ways to remedy the situation for the future. We want to encourage competent geropsychologists to gain the ABPP in geropsychology as a formal way of showing their competence in this area, as well as helping others to recognize what they need to do in order to become competent in geropsychology vis a vis the functional domains of assessment, innervation, and consultation.
Yes, please refer to our Specialty Board Officer page for the coordinator if you want to be assigned a mentor or have any questions.