Using The Gerontological Imagination to Explore Suicide Among Older Adults: An Interdisciplinary Perspective for Professional Counselors

Gerontology, the study of aging and older adulthood, is a vast field consisting of many intersecting disciplines, such as medicine, nutrition, public policy, psychology, social work, and professional counseling. As the older adult population rapidly increases, so too will the prevalence of mental health concerns among this population, including risk for suicide. Older adults presently comprise 16.5% of the U.S. population, yet account for 19.3% of all deaths by suicide (Drapeau & McIntosh, 2020). Professional counselors are newly eligible Medicare providers and can close gaps in healthcare access for older adults who rely on Medicare to receive mental health services, which might include suicide risk assessment and intervention. The Gerontological Imagination is an integrative paradigm to understand the process of aging across multiple disciplines. In this manuscript, we use The Gerontological Imagination as a guiding framework to discuss a professional counselor’s role in identifying and responding to suicide among older adults.