Fundamentals of Health Psychology

Thomas Hadjistavropoulos, Ph.D., ABPP, FCAHS is Professor of Clinical Psychology, Research Chair in Aging and Health and Director of the Centre on Aging and Health, University of Regina. He has served as the 2007-2008 President of the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA). His research, which has been funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, AGE WELL Network ofNational Centres of Excellence and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, focuses on psychological issues in pain. An area of recent focus has been pain assessment and management among seniors with a special emphasis on seniors who have severe limitations in ability tocommunicate because of dementia.He has been honoured with numerous prestigious awards including a CIHR Investigator Award, the Year 2000 Canadian Pain Society Early Career Award for Excellence in Pain Research, the Canadian Association on Gerontology Distinguished Member Award, the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation Career Achievement Award, a Saskatchewan Health Care Excellence Award, and many others. He has also been elected Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association as well as of the American PsychologicalAssociation in recognition of his distinguished contributions to the science and profession of psychology. More recently, he was inducted as Fellow in the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences which represents one of the highest honours available to Canadian Health Scientists. Thomas is Editor-in-Chief ofEthics & Behavior and in the past has served as Editor of Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, Psychology Section Editor of the Canadian Journal on Aging as well as on other editorial boards.He has published over 160 peer reviewed papers and book chapters as well as five books. Heather D. Hadjistavropoulos (Ph.D. University of British Columbia 1995) is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Regina (U of R), Canada. She founded the Psychology Training Clinic at the U of R in 2002, and trains graduate students in the assessment and treatment of anxiety and mood disorders, commonly among individuals with co-morbid medical conditions. Heather's research is focused on: a)assessing and treating psychological problems that impact health; and b) understanding and improving the quality of health care in an attempt to reduce the burden of illness. Heather received a Canada Innovation Foundation grant to develop a state of the art Clinical Health Psychology research area.She has published and presented her research widely and received funding through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Canadian Health Services Research Foundation and the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation. She has been the recipient of many awards for her research as well as her contributions to training and the profession of psychology. In 2010, Dr. Hadjistavropoulos founded the Online Therapy Unit (onlinetherapyuser.ca). This unit has: 1) overseen the development of a website andpolicies and procedures for the delivery of therapist-assisted Internet-delivered Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (I-CBT) in Saskatchewan; 2) trained community providers and graduate students on how to use I-CBT; and, 3) coordinated, monitored and evaluated the delivery of I-CBT for multiple conditions.The Online Therapy Unit is having a substantive impact on delivery of psychological care in Saskatchewan and inspiring the development of similar services in other provinces.