Title search results
Showing 41 - 60 of 955 items
Understanding Racial And Ethnic Differences In Health In Late Life: A Research Agenda
By Panel On Race, Ethnicity, Health in Later Life. 2004
As the population of older Americans grows, it is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. Differences in health by racial…
and ethnic status could be increasingly consequential for health policy and programs. Such differences are are not simply a matter of education or ability to pay for health care. For instance, Asian Americans and Hispanics appear to be in better health, on a number of indicators, than White Americans, despite, on average, lower socioeconomic status. The reasons are complex, including possible roles for such factors as selective migration, risk behaviors, exposure to various stressors, patient attitudes, and geographic variation in health care. This volume, produced by a multidisciplinary panel, considers such possible explanations for racial and ethnic health differentials within an integrated framework. It provides a concise summary of available research and lays out a research agenda to address the many uncertainties in current knowledge. It recommends, for instance, looking at health differentials across the life course and deciphering the links between factors presumably producing differentials and biopsychosocial mechanisms that lead to impaired health.Developments in the Economics of Aging
By David A. Wise. 2009
The number of Americans eligible to receive Social Security benefits will increase from forty-five million to nearly eighty million in…
the next twenty years. Retirement systems must therefore adapt to meet the demands of the largest aging population in our nation's history. In Developments in the Economics of Aging, David A. Wise and a distinguished group of analysts examine the economic issues that will confront policy makers as they seek to design policies to protect the economic and physical health of these older Americans. The volume looks at such topics as factors influencing work and retirement decisions at older ages, changes in life satisfaction associated with retirement, and the shift in responsibility for managing retirement assets from professional money managers of traditional pension plans to individual account holders of 401(k)s. Developments in the Economics of Aging also addresses the complicated relationship between health and economic status, including why health behaviors vary across populations and how socioeconomic measures correlate with health outcomes.Vigil
By Morris Panych. 2012
A man returns after thirty years to sit with a relative on her deathbed. Kemp's problem is: she's not dying…
fast enough. Through Kemp's own errors and inattentiveness, the visit that he thinks will take a day or two stretches into a year. A play of mistaken identity, twisted circumstance, and surprising turns, this is one Vigil worth keeping.Baby Boomers of Color: Implications for Social Work Policy and Practice
By Melvin Delgado. 2015
Bringing Bubbe Home
By Debra Gordon Zaslow. 2014
Debra Zaslow was humming along on baby-boomer autopilot, immersed in her life as a professional storyteller, wife of a Rabbi,…
and mother of two teenagers when she felt compelled to bring her 103-year-old grandmother, Bubbe, who was dying alone in a nursing facility, home to live and die with her family. Zaslow had no idea if she would have the emotional stamina to midwife Bubbe to the other side. Bringing Bubbe Home is the story of their time together in Bubbe’s last months, mingled with scenes from the past that reveal how her grandmother’s stories of abuse, tenacity, and survival have played out through the generations of women in the family. Debra watches her expectations of a perfect death dissolve in the midst of queen-size diapers, hormonal teenagers and volatile caregivers, while the two women sit soul-to-soul in the place between life and death. As she holds her grandmother’s gnarled hand and traces the lines of her face, Debra sees her own search for mothering reflected in her grandmother’s eyes. When Bubbe finally dies, something in Debra is born: the possibility to move into the future without the chains of the past.The Silvering Screen
By Sally Chivers. 2011
Popular films have always included elderly characters, but until recently, old age only played a supporting role onscreen. Now, as…
the Baby Boomer population hits retirement, there has been an explosion of films, including Away From Her, The Straight Story, The Barbarian Invasions, and About Schmidt, where aging is a central theme.The first-ever sustained discussion of old age in cinema, The Silvering Screen brings together theories from disability studies, critical gerontology, and cultural studies, to examine how the film industry has linked old age with physical and mental disability. Sally Chivers further examines Hollywood's mixed messages - the applauding of actors who portray the debilitating side of aging, while promoting a culture of youth - as well as the gendering of old age on film. The Silvering Screen makes a timely attempt to counter the fear of aging implicit in these readings by proposing alternate ways to value getting older.The Good Caregiver
By Robert L. Kane Dr.. 2011
A survival guide with an insider's perspective, for the millions of unprepared caregivers of aging loved ones. As Americans are…
living longer, an unprecedented number of people now require long-term care during their last years. More than 15 million adult children now care for their elderly parents, and unsuspecting caregivers are usually unprepared financially, emotionally, and practically for the relentless job they will face. In The Good Caregiver, world-renowned expert on aging and long- term care Dr.Robert Kane provides a road map for caregiving. More than just a professional expert, Dr. Kane draws on his personal experience of caring for his aging mother after she struggled from a debilitating stroke. Dr. Kane offers heartfelt advice for those learning how to best care for their loved one and how to make thoughtful, informed decisions at each stage of the caring process: ? How does a nursing home differ from assisted living? ? How is a homemaker different from a home health aide? ? How far can you trust a hospital discharge planner? ? What services does Medicare cover, and much, much more The Good Caregiver equips readers to deal more effectively with the challenges of day-to-day care and to navigate the system itself, including legal, financial, and interpersonal hurdles. Filled with stories and sidebars from other caregivers, The Good Caregiver offers a candid, personal approach to caregiving, providing fearless answers to difficult scenarios with humor and encouragement.Living with Alzheimer's: Managing Memory Loss, Identity, and Illness
By Renée L. Beard. 2016
News of Alzheimer's disease is constantly in the headlines. Every day we hear heart-wrenching stories of people caring for a…
loved one who has become a shell of their former self, of projections about rising incidence rates, and of cures that are just around the corner. However, we don't see or hear from the people who actually have the disease. In Living with Alzheimer's, Renée L. Beard argues that the exclusively negative portrayals of Alzheimer's are grossly inaccurate. To understand what life with memory loss is really like, Beard draws on intensive observations of nearly 100 seniors undergoing cognitive evaluation, as well as post-diagnosis interviews with individuals experiencing late-in-life forgetfulness. Since we all forget sometimes, seniors with an Alzheimer's diagnosis ultimately need to be socialized into medicalized interpretations of their forgetfulness. In daily life, people with the disease are forced to manage stigma and the presumption of incompetence on top of the actual symptoms of their ailment. The well-meaning public, and not their dementia, becomes the major barrier to a happy life for those affected. Beard also examines how these perceptions affect treatment for Alzheimer's. Interviews with clinicians and staff from the Alzheimer's Association reveal that despite the best of intentions, pejorative framings of life with dementia fuel both clinical practice and advocacy efforts. These professionals perpetuate narratives about "self-loss," "impending cures," and the economic and emotional "burden" to families and society even if they do not personally believe them. Yet, Beard also concludes that in spite of these trends, most of the diagnosed individuals in her study achieve a graceful balance between accepting the medical label and resisting the social stigma that accompanies it. In stark contrast to the messages we receive, this book provides an unprecedented view into the ways that people with early Alzheimer's actively and deliberately navigate their lives.The Aging Mind: Opportunities in Cognitive Research
By Committee on Future Directions for Cognitive Research on Aging. 2000
Possible new breakthroughs in understanding the aging mind that can be used to benefit older people are now emerging from…
research. This volume identifies the key scientific advances and the opportunities they bring. For example, science has learned that among older adults who do not suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias, cognitive decline may depend less on loss of brain cells than on changes in the health of neurons and neural networks. Research on the processes that maintain neural health shows promise of revealing new ways to promote cognitive functioning in older people. Research is also showing how cognitive functioning depends on the conjunction of biology and culture. The ways older people adapt to changes in their nervous systems, and perhaps the changes themselves, are shaped by past life experiences, present living situations, changing motives, cultural expectations, and emerging technology, as well as by their physical health status and sensory-motor capabilities. Improved understanding of how physical and contextual factors interact can help explain why some cognitive functions are impaired in aging while others are spared and why cognitive capability is impaired in some older adults and spared in others. On the basis of these exciting findings, the report makes specific recommends that the U.S. government support three major new initiatives as the next steps for research.Aging Social Policies: An International Perspective
By Professor Robbyn R. Wacker, Karen A. Roberto. 2011
Due to population explosion and a global increase in average life expectancies, an unprecedentedly high percentage of the world's population…
is aging. By the middle of this century there will be up to 2 billion individuals over the age of 65, a demographic shift never before experienced in our human history. In addition, declining birth rates in industrialized countries means a decrease in the number of adults under 64. In Aging Social Policies: An International Perspective the authors consider how policy – domestic and international – affects and will continue to affect the lives of our aging population.Aging and Social Expenditure in the Major Industrial Countries, 1980-2025
By Peter S. Heller, Richard Hemming, Peter W. Kohnert. 1986
Restoring Flexibility: A Gentle Yoga-based Practice To Increase Mobility At Any Age
By Andrea Gilats. 2015
A FULLY ILLUSTRATED, STEP-BY-STEP PROGRAM THAT IMPROVES THE MOBILITY OF SENIORS AND PROMOTES LONG-TERM HEALTH No matter what age you…
begin doing yoga, it will help you steadily renew your physical abilities. Done over four weeks, this 25-minute, twice-weekly program features gentle poses, practice sequences, and techniques to help you: * Improve your posture * Increase spinal flexibility * Release tightness in your shoulders * Relax the muscles in your torso * Expand mobility in your hip joints * Reduce the chances of falling This book’s safe, age-appropriate, customizable approach to yoga-based exercise is specifically designed to restore your flexibility, mobility, and agility while ensuring a longer life and more independent lifestyle. As this flexibility practice becomes a regular habit, you’ll feel more energetic and enjoy moving freely. Your favorite physical activity, like walking, golf and even dancing, will once again became a personal pleasure.Invisible City
By John Ingram Gilderbloom. 1988
A legendary figure in the realms of public policy and academia, John Gilderbloom is one of the foremost urban-planning researchers…
of our time, producing groundbreaking studies on housing markets, design, location, regulation, financing, and community building. Now, in Invisible City, he turns his eye to fundamental questions regarding housing for the elderly, the disabled, and the poor. Why is it that some locales can offer affordable, accessible, and attractive housing, while the large majority of cities fail to do so? Invisible City calls for a brave new housing paradigm that makes the needs of marginalized populations visible to policy makers. Drawing on fascinating case studies in Houston, Louisville, and New Orleans, and analyzing census information as well as policy reports, Gilderbloom offers a comprehensive, engaging, and optimistic theory of how housing can be remade with a progressive vision. While many contemporary urban scholars have failed to capture the dynamics of what is happening in our cities, Gilderbloom presents a new vision of shelter as a force that shapes all residents.Craft of Life Course Research
By Janet Giele, Glen Elder. 2009
This book brings together prominent investigators to provide a comprehensive guide to doing life course research, including an 'inside view'…
of how they designed and carried out influential longitudinal studies. Using vivid examples, the contributors trace the connections between early and later experience and reveal how researchers and graduate students can discover these links in their own research. Well-organized chapters describe the best and newest ways to Use surveys, life records, ethnography, and data archives to collect different types of data over years or even decades. Apply innovative statistical methods to measure dynamic processes that result in improvement, decline, or reversibility in economic fortune, stress, health, and criminality. Explore the micro- and macro-level explanatory factors that shape individual trajectories, including genetic and environmental interactions, personal life history, interpersonal ties, and sociocultural institutions.Retirement Income Redesigned: Master Plans for Distribution -- An Adviser's Guide for Funding Boomers' Best Years
By Walter Updegrave, Katz, Harold Evensky, Deena B.. 2006
Clients nearing retirement have some significant challenges to face. And so do their advisers. They can expect to live far…
longer after they retire. And the problems they expect their advisers to solve are far more complex. The traditional sources of retirement income may be shriveling, but boomers don't intend to downsize their plans. Instead, they're redefining what it means to be retired--as well as what they require of financial advisers. Planners who aren't prepared will be left behind. Those who are will step up to some lucrative and challenging work. To help get the work done, Harold Evensky and Deena Katz--both veteran problem solvers--have tapped the talents of a range of experts whose breakthrough thinking offers solutions to even the thorniest issues in retirement-income planning: Sustainable withdrawals Longevity risk Eliminating luck as a factor in planning Immediate annuities, reverse mortgages, and viatical and life settlements Strategies for increasing retirement cash flow In Retirement Income Redesigned, the most-respected names in the industry discuss these issues and a range of others.This book approaches the concept of adjustment to aging and endeavors to build reader understanding of this construct through a…
critical review and discussion Once the reader understands the origins and nature of adjustment to aging a second innovation encompasses the development of a proposed empirical model of adjustment to aging and the analysis of its components and correlates Measures to assess adjustment to aging policies programs and interventions comprising adjustment to aging and its components and correlates will also be addressed Another innovation includes the multidimensional experience of adjustment to aging from the cultural perspective Lastly it addresses areas of future development related to this construct Future policies and interventions in older populations need to integrate and debate the role of adjustment to aging and ultimately consider a variety of different strategies each with a different set of costs and benefits Health and social professionals will be at the vanguard of policy making and community and institutional interventions Hence resources and tools to adequately prepare these individuals for the future years will be vital It is the author s hope that this resource can be valuable for professionals and students working within the field of aging as they develop research and intervention policies encompassing adjustment to aging in the coming yearsWhat Does It Mean to Grow Old?: Reflections from the Humanities
By Thomas R. Cole, Sally Gadow. 1986
In What Does It Mean to Grow Old? essayists come to grips as best they can with the phenomenon of…
an America that is about to become the Old Country. They have been drawn from every relevant discipline--gerontology, social medicine, politics, health, anthropology, ethics, law--and asked to speak their mind. Most of them write extremely well [and their] sharply individual voices are heard.Neoliberalising Old Age
By John Macnicol. 2015
Governments are encouraging later-life working and state pension ages are being raised. There is also a growing debate on intergenerational…
equity and on ageism/age discrimination. John Macnicol, one of Europe's leading academic analysts of old age and ageing, examines the effect of neoliberalism on the recent ageing and social policy agenda in the UK and the USA. He argues that the demographic and economic impulses behind recent policy changes are in fact less important than the effect of neoliberalism as an ideology, which has caused certain key problems to be defined in a particular way. The book outlines past theories of old age and examines pensions reform, the debate on life expectancy gains, the causes of retirement, the idea of intergenerational equity, the current debate on ageism/age discrimination and the likely human consequences of raising state pension ages.The Well-Being of the Elderly in Asia: A Four-Country Comparative Study
By Albert I. Hermalin. 2002
The past two decades have witnessed rapid social, economic, and demographic change in East and South-East Asia. The older populations…
in these regions have been increasing faster than in the West, and the proportions of people over sixty will more than double over the next thirty years. Increased urbanization and educational levels and a strong shift to professional, technical, manufacturing, and service occupations are changing the social and economic landscape, leading to concern for the well-being of the elderly, who traditionally have relied on the family for support. Governments are attempting to preserve these traditions while taking into account widespread family change and new expectations for pension, health insurance, and other public programs. The contributors to this volume use survey and other data collected over ten years to examine the well-being of the current older population in four Asian countries: The Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. Each major analytic chapter looks at a key dimension of well-being--economic, physical and mental health, work and leisure--and how these are affected by the familial and social support arrangements, as well as age, gender, education, and urban-rural residence. Where possible, changes over time are traced. Explicit attention is given to the policies and programs in place and under development in each country and to the cultural accommodations underway. The contributors also look ahead to the implications of the large numbers of elderly with very different characteristics who will predominate in the coming years and to the policy implications of this coming transformation. The book will be important for scholars and policymakers whose work involves population in Asia, including demographers, sociologists, and economists.Economic Foundations for Creative Ageing Policy, Volume II
By Andrzej Klimczuk. 2017
Aging populations are a major consideration for socio-economic development in the early 21st century. This demographic change is mainly seen…
as a threat rather than as an opportunity to improve the quality of human life. Aging population is taking place in every continent of the world with Europe in the least favourable situation due to its aging population and reduction in economic competitiveness. Economic Foundations for Creative Aging Policy offers public policy ideas to construct positive answers for ageing populations. This exciting new volume searches for economic solutions that can enable effective social policy concerning the elderly. Klimczuk covers theoretical analysis and case study descriptions of good practices, to suggest strategies that could be internationally popularised.