Ageism and psychologists: Brief narrative review of literature

There are not so many studies and researches on ageism in Italy and case reports are also limited. However, the increase of the elderly population is a constant fact in our country, as well as in Europe and throughout the industrially advanced West. In addition, there is a clear minority of experts in psychogeriatrics and fewer and fewer psychologists are interested in the geriatric age at the evaluative, clinical, care-giving, treatment and therapeutic level, when compared to the majority of mental health professionals dealing with other areas, needs, age groups (e.g. developmental age, adolescence or adulthood). Yet the significant increase of elderly subjects entails the presence of health needs, also and above all psychological ones, which have been little considered so far. For this reason, healthcare and mental health professionals are called to make an effort to recognize these needs so that they can be able to calibrate their clinical, care and therapeutic interventions. Ageism, that is the prejudice towards geriatric-age subjects, can also affect people working in the socio-health area, including psychologists. This study, part of a much broader research project, still in its implementation phase, is aimed at providing an initial contribution to the scientific knowledge on the topic of ageism and of its impact on psychologists.