UA Launches New Mental Health Clinic for Senior Citizens, Kicks Off with March 21 Memory Session

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – A new University of Alabama outpatient clinic, designed to help senior citizens with their mental health needs, will kickoff with a free memory clinic Friday, March 21.

During Friday’s free clinic, from 3-4:30 p.m. in the faculty lounge (room 351) on the third floor of Gordon Palmer Hall, representatives of UA’s new Geropsychology Clinic will offer tips on memory disorders and the signs distinguishing a memory disorder from the occasional memory lapses that everyone experiences.

Clinic participants may also register for a free memory ‘check-up.’ These memory check-ups will be held in the Geropsychology Clinic, which is housed in the Psychology Clinic in Gordon Palmer Hall on the UA campus. Those not attending the memory clinic may register for the free memory check-ups by calling 205/348-5000.

The Geropsychology Clinic also offers other services on a sliding scale fee, based on income. Other services include neuropsychological and psychological assessments, consultations and interventions for health care decision-making and future planning, dementia caregiving services, competency assessments, and psychotherapy services.

The Geropsychology Clinic, co-sponsored by UA’s department of psychology and UA’s Center for Mental Health and Aging, will later offer additional informational seminars designed to assist the elderly with their mental health needs. Future topics will include health and nutritional awareness, caregiving for elderly loved ones, depression awareness and screening, and ways of preparing and coping with end of life issues.

UA graduate students in the doctoral psychology program, who are supervised by licensed UA psychologists, provide the clinic’s services. UA faculty members involved with the clinic include Dr. Kristine Lokken, a clinical neuropsychologist; Drs. Forrest Scogin, Rebecca Allen, Martha Crowther and Lou Burgio, clinical geropsychologists, and Dr. Sheila Black, a cognitive geropsychologist.