Recovery-Focused Therapy for Older Adults with Bipolar Disorder

Traditionally, older people have been subject to negative stereotypes (Satre et al. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice 37(5):489, 2006) and pessimism about the possibility of change in later life (Freud, S. On psychotherapy (J. Strachey, Trans.). In The complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 6). Hogarth Press, 1905/1953). There have been very few psychological interventions developed specifically for older people with bipolar disorder, especially when compared to their younger counterparts. This chapter provides an overview of recovery-focused therapy (RfT) for bipolar disorder, developed initially for working age adults (Jones et al. BMC Psychiatry 12:204, 2012; Jones et al. The British Journal of Psychiatry 206(1):58–66, 2015) and the adaptation of RfT for older people with bipolar disorder. A set of recommendations have been developed, and a framework was provided for working with older people with bipolar disorder using the RfT approach. These are based upon the existing literature and insight from the development of RfT-OA (Tyler et al. BMJ Open 11(8):e049829, 2021) and delivery of RfT-OA in a pilot randomized controlled trial (Tyler et al. BJPsych Open 8(6):e191, 2022b).