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Robert Neil Butler (1927–2010) was a scholar, psychiatrist, and Pulitzer Prize–winning author who revolutionized the way the world thinks about… aging and the elderly. One of the first psychiatrists to engage with older men and women outside of institutional settings, Butler coined the term "ageism" to draw attention to discrimination against older adults and spent a lifetime working to improve their status, medical treatment, and care.Early in his career, Butler seized on the positive features of late-life development—aspects he documented in his pathbreaking research on "healthy aging" at the National Institutes of Health and in private practice. He set the nation's age-based health care agenda and research priorities as founding director of the National Institute on Aging and by creating the first interprofessional, interdisciplinary department of geriatrics at New York City's Mount Sinai Hospital. In the final two decades of his career, Butler created a global alliance of scientists, educators, practitioners, politicians, journalists, and advocates through the International Longevity Center. A scholar who knew Butler personally and professionally, W. Andrew Achenbaum follows this pioneer's significant contributions to the concept of healthy aging and the notion that aging is not synonymous with physical and mental decline. Emphasizing the progressive aspects of Butler's approach and insight, Achenbaum affirms the ongoing relevance of his work to gerontology, geriatrics, medicine, social work, and related fields.
In the popular imagination, retirement promises a well-deserved rest—idle days spent traveling, volunteering, pursuing hobbies, or just puttering around the… house. But as the nature of work has changed, becoming not just a means of income but a major source of personal identity, many accomplished professionals struggle with discontentment in their retirement. What are we to do—individually and as a culture—when work and life experience make conventional retirement a burden rather than a reprieve?In Retirement and Its Discontents, Michelle Pannor Silver considers how we confront the mismatch between idealized and actual retirement. She follows doctors, CEOs, elite athletes, professors, and homemakers during their transition to retirement as they struggle to recalibrate their sense of purpose and self-worth. The work ethic and passion that helped these retirees succeed can make giving in to retirement more difficult, as they confront newfound leisure time with uncertainty and guilt. Drawing on in-depth interviews that capture a range of perceptions and common concerns about what it means to be retired, Silver emphasizes the significance of creating new retirement strategies that support social connectedness and personal fulfillment while countering ageist stereotypes about productivity and employment. A richly detailed and deeply personal exploration of the challenges faced by accomplished retirees, Retirement and Its Discontents demonstrates the importance of personal identity in forging sustainable social norms around retirement and helps us to rethink some of the new challenges for aging societies.
Age at Work explores the myriad ways in which ‘age’ is at ‘work’ across society, organizations and workplaces, with special… focus on organizations, their boundaries, and marginalizing processes around age and ageism in and across these spaces. The book examines: how society operates in and through age, and how this informs the very existence of organizations; age-organization regimes, age-organization boundaries, and the relationship between organizations and death, and post-death the importance of memory, forgetting and rememorizing in re-thinking the authors’ and others’ earlier work tensions between seeing age in terms of later life and seeing age as pervasive social relations. Enriched with insights from the authors’ lived experiences, Age at Work is a major and timely intervention in studies of age, work, care and organizations. Ideal for students of Sociology, Organizations and Management, Social Policy, Gerontology, Health and Social Care, and Social Work.
Age at Work explores the myriad ways in which ‘age’ is at ‘work’ across society, organizations and workplaces, with special… focus on organizations, their boundaries, and marginalizing processes around age and ageism in and across these spaces. The book examines: how society operates in and through age, and how this informs the very existence of organizations; age-organization regimes, age-organization boundaries, and the relationship between organizations and death, and post-death the importance of memory, forgetting and rememorizing in re-thinking the authors’ and others’ earlier work tensions between seeing age in terms of later life and seeing age as pervasive social relations. Enriched with insights from the authors’ lived experiences, Age at Work is a major and timely intervention in studies of age, work, care and organizations. Ideal for students of Sociology, Organizations and Management, Social Policy, Gerontology, Health and Social Care, and Social Work.
Many hospice social workers must address spiritual issues with their clients, but do not feel competent to do so effectively.… This targeted volume draws upon multidisciplinary theory and research to advance a relational model of spiritually sensitive hospice care. The book will help readers elevate their spiritual competence and foster a relationship with their clients that will enrich the experience for all involved.Spirituality and Hospice Social Work helps practitioners understand various forms of spiritual assessment for use with their clients. The book teaches practitioners to recognize a client's spiritual needs and resources, as well as signs of spiritual suffering. It also discusses religious and spiritual practices that clients may use to enhance their spiritual coping. Spirituality and Hospice Social Work stresses the need for interdisciplinary collaboration with other members of the hospice team, along with the value of maintaining professional ethical standards when addressing spiritual issues. Throughout, the importance of spiritual sensitivity and its effect upon client well-being is emphasized.
When Eda LeShan realized she would soon be joining the ranks of the 28.5 million senior citizens in this country,… she started doing some research. She talked to scores of men and women, compared notes, asked about their deepest fears, their greatest joys. The result is Oh, To Be 50 Again!—a truthful examination of what it means to grow older today. As a family counselor writing about psychological crises, Eda LeShan has always been outspoken, compassionate, and honest. Four generations of fans have sought guidance, practical solutions, and emotional comfort from her. Now, in a logical sequel to her book The Wonderful Crisis of Middle Age, she turns her attention to the often bothersome, sometimes humorous, inevitable business of growing older. Here is Eda LeShan’s personal philosophy as well as the thoughts and feelings of the people she’s interviewed. Mrs. LeShan addresses the most significant concerns of post-middle-age Americans. She reflects on dealing with a world that’s nothing like the one you grew up in, on having the right attitude when your knees buckle and your belt doesn’t, on learning to take the bad with the good, on having a need more than ever for a purpose. Mrs. LeShan doesn’t pretend to have easy answers, but like a wise friend, she shares her fears and offers insights. on accepting physical limitations to enjoying grandchildren without any of the responsibilities, from understanding changing sexual needs to continuing the search for identity, from preparing for death to earning the right to our eccentricities—her advice is sound, and it’s all given with the warmth and candor that her audience has come to expect. Eda LeShan is a noted educator, family counselor, and author of over twenty books, including When Your Child Drives You Crazy, The Wonderful Crisis of Middle Age, and In Search of Myself and Other Children. She is a contributing editor to Woman’s Day, for which she writes a monthly column, “Talking It Over.” For three years, Mrs. LeShan was moderator of the Emmy- nominated public television series “How Do Your Children Grow?”
The teacher and gerontological social work scholar Mercedes Bern-Klug joins experts on nursing, law, medicine, sociology, and social work to… provide a thorough understanding of nursing home palliative care. Their broad definition of palliative care treats comfort care as appropriate across the illness experience, not just at the end of life. Because a majority of nursing home residents are older adults facing multiple, advanced chronic conditions, this book is grounded in the provision of palliative care-especially palliative psychosocial care. Yet its practice recommendations can also be applied to other long-term care settings, such as assisted living. The contributors combine scholarship with practical wisdom in each chapter, mixing reviews of scholarly literature with insights gleaned from clinical practice. Chapter topics comply with the eight domains of palliative care developed by the National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care. Some focus on care of the resident, while others concern the resident's family. A special section addresses self-care for nursing home staff members, and another discusses nursing home rituals to mark the death of a resident. Bern-Klug concludes with an overview of the factors that will shape the future of palliative care for advanced chronic illness.
Creating dementia-friendly communities can give people with dementia the chance to continue meaningful lives with reciprocal personal relationships. Underpinning successful… dementia-friendly communities is an awareness of people with dementia as active citizens and the importance of supporting engagement in community life. This book offers an overview of the dementia-friendly communities movement, showing the many benefits of this approach. It describes community initiatives from across the globe, such as Dementia Friends, memory cafes, and creative engagement with the arts through organizations like TimeSlips. This compassionate book tells another story about dementia, away from negative stereotypes. This alternative approach claims people can retain a sense of dignity, hold onto hope, sustain meaningful relationships, and live with a sense of purpose with support from their communities.
When youth shake off their rural roots and middle-aged people migrate for economic opportunities, what happens to the grandparents left… at home? Linked Lives provides readers with intimate glimpses into homes in a Sri Lankan Buddhist village, where elders wisely use their moral authority and their control over valuable property to assure that they receive both physical and spiritual care when they need it. The care work that grandparents do for grandchildren allows labor migration and contributes to the overall well-being of the extended family. The book considers the efforts migrant workers make to build and buy houses and the ways those rooms and walls constrain social activities. It outlines the strategies elders employ to age in place, and the alternatives they face in local old folks’ homes. Based on ethnographic work done over a decade, Michele Gamburd shows how elders face the challenges of a rapidly globalizing world.
In Through Japanese Eyes, based on her thirty-year research at a senior center in upstate New York, anthropologist Yohko Tsuji… describes old age in America from a cross-cultural perspective. Comparing aging in America and in her native Japan, she discovers that notable differences in the pan-human experience of aging are rooted in cultural differences between these two countries, and that Americans have strongly negative attitudes toward aging because it represents the antithesis of cherished American values, especially independence. Tsuji’s research discloses how her American interlocutors ingeniously fill this gap between the ideal and the real to live meaningful lives. The book also reveals that American culture, despite its seeming lack of guidance for those aging, plays a pivotal role in elders’ lives, simultaneously assisting and constraining them. Furthermore, Tsuji’s lengthy period of research illustrates major changes in her interlocutors’ lives, incorporating their declines and death, and significant shifts in the culture of aging in American society. The book also describes the author’s journey of getting to know American culture and growing into senescence herself.
Building and retaining physical strength is integral to living a fuller, longer life. Lifting weights can reduce the symptoms of… everything from osteoarthritis and back pain to depression and diabetes. In Strength Training for Seniors, certified personal trainer Paige Waehner provides a detailed twelve-week strength program to help you safely and gradually build power, balance, and resistance with simple, easy-to-follow exercises. Strength Training for Seniors outlines the physical and mental benefits that arise from instituting a strength training program, and includes instructions for numerous different exercises that will: Improve balance and decrease fear of fallingIncrease self-esteem and independenceRelieve pain throughout your bodyAnd so much more! Not only will your body be stronger for the future after following the guidelines in Strength Training for Seniors, but you'll also build your confidence to do more in life.
Three-quarters of deaths in the U.S. today occur to people over the age of 65, following chronic illness. This new… experience of "predictable death" has important consequences for the ways in which societies structure their health care systems, laws, and labor markets. Dying in Old Age: U.S. Practice and Policy applies a sociological lens to the end of life, exploring how macrosocial systems and social inequalities interact to affect individual experiences of death in the United States. Using data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study and Pew Research Center Survey of Aging and Longevity, this book argues that predictable death influences the entire life course and works to generate greater social disparities. The volume is divided into sections exploring demography, the circumstances of dying people, and public policy affecting dying people and their families. In exploring these interconnected factors, the author also proposes means of making "bad death" an avoidable event. As one of the first books to explore the social consequences of end of life practice, Dying in Old Age will be of great interest to graduate and advanced undergraduate students in sociology, social work, and public health, as well as scholars and policymakers in these areas.
The beloved New York Times bestselling author tells the poignant love story of caring for her parents in their final… years in this beautifully written memoir.&“I&’ll Be Seeing You moved me and broadened my understanding of the human condition.&”—Wally Lamb, author of I Know This Much Is TrueElizabeth Berg&’s father was an Army veteran who was a tough man in every way but one: He showed a great deal of love and tenderness to his wife. Berg describes her parents&’ marriage as a romance that lasted for nearly seventy years; she grew up watching her father kiss her mother upon leaving home, and kiss her again the instant he came back. His idea of when he should spend time away from her was never.But then Berg&’s father developed Alzheimer&’s disease, and her parents were forced to leave the home they loved and move into a facility that could offer them help. It was time for the couple&’s children to offer, to the best of their abilities, practical advice, emotional support, and direction—to, in effect, parent the people who had for so long parented them. It was a hard transition, mitigated at least by flashes of humor and joy. The mix of emotions on everyone&’s part could make every day feel like walking through a minefield. Then came redemption.I&’ll Be Seeing You charts the passage from the anguish of loss to the understanding that even in the most fractious times, love can heal, transform, and lead to graceful—and grateful—acceptance.
Get the best care, in the right place, at the right price To find the right kind of long-term care,… you may need to make difficult personal, medical, and financial decisions during emotionally tough times. Long-Term Care helps you and your family understand the range of available choices. Even more important, it guides you toward the best care you can afford. You’ll learn how to: explore your options for home care, assisted living, and nursing homes get the most out of Medicaid, Medicare, and veterans’ programs evaluate whether long-term care insurance is worth the significant expense consider the special needs of loved ones with dementia or Alzheimer’s, and protect your loved ones from elder fraud. The 13th edition is completely updated with the latest long-term care costs, Medicaid rules, and resources.
A story that unashamedly promotes death with dignity, currently practiced overseas but not widely in Australia. A nursing home in… a rural town. Residents are inexplicably dying earlier than expected, much to the concern of Twilight’s Board. Who is behind these mysterious deaths? And why? How will they be held to account? And when will the Australian public be given a voice in this crucial issue of end-of-life choice and empowerment.
After Stroke: Enhancing Quality of Life brings together an extraordinary selection of advice, practical survivor techniques, information about resources, and… personal stories of triumph. It is designed to help those who have experienced a stroke attain the highest quality of life possible, under their new physical restrictions.Recuperating from a stroke is an arduous process that has only just begun when the survivor is released from the hospital. This book shows anyone interested how to create an effective climate for healing and how to help the survivor realize his/her fullest recovery potential. It offers varied perspectives of everyone involved with a stroke: the patient, the family, and friends as well as the team of specialized physicians, nurses, psychologists, physical therapists, speech pathologists, and diverse therapists.Through its interesting and varied essays, After Stroke: Enhancing the Quality of Life offers the reader a clearer understanding of the injuries that the body as well as the mind have sustained. This anthology is carefully designed to present enhanced perspectives into all aspects of the healing and recovery processes that follow the personal tragedy of a stroke.
A &“lovely&” memoir of caring for a mother with cancer, reflecting on our appetites for food and for life (Minneapolis… Star Tribune). When her mother is diagnosed with a rare cancer, Karen Babine—cook, collector of vintage cast iron, and fiercely devoted daughter, sister, and aunt—can&’t help but wonder: feed a fever, starve a cold, but what do we do for cancer? And so she commits to preparing her mother anything she will eat, a vegetarian diving into the unfamiliar world of bone broth and pot roast. In this series of mini-essays, Babine ponders the intimate connections between food, family, and illness. As she notes that her sister&’s unborn baby is the size of lemon while her mother&’s tumor is the size of a cabbage, she reflects on what draws us toward food metaphors to describe disease. What is the power of language, of naming, in a medical culture where patients are too often made invisible? How do we seek meaning where none is to be found—and can we create it from scratch? And how, Babine asks as she bakes cookies with her small niece and nephew, does a family create its own food culture across generations? Generous and bittersweet, All the Wild Hungers is an affecting chronicle of one family&’s experience of illness and of a writer's culinary attempt to make sense of the inexplicable. &“[Babine] continues to navigate her way through extraordinary challenges with ordinary comforts, finding poetry in the everyday. Reading this quiet book should provide the sort of balm for those in similar circumstances that writing it must have for the author.&”―Kirkus Reviews &“Profound…Anyone who has experienced a family member&’s struggle with cancer will be stabbed by recognition throughout this book…In the end, the overriding hunger referred to in this lovely book&’s title is the hunger for life.&”―Minneapolis Star Tribune
Everything you need to get organized Do your loved ones know where to find your life insurance policies, online banking… passwords, real estate deeds, or even your will? If you’re like a lot of people, you keep important information—from the whereabouts of family heirlooms to online passwords to automatic bill-pay details—in your head or stashed in the odd desk drawer. Unfortunately, this disorganization will likely cause hassles for those who someday take care of you or your estate. Get It Together provides an easy, straightforward method to help you and others keep track of: secured places and passwords employment records insurance policies real estate records tax records retirement accounts estate planning documents funeral arrangements letters to loved ones We’ve reorganized this 9th edition to make the process more straightforward. In the first half, you’ll find the pages to create your personal planner. In the second half, you’ll find step-by-step instructions and helpful resources. With downloadable forms: organize your records using worksheets (details inside). Save the worksheets to your computer and then complete, print, and store them at your convenience.
Biology of Aging presents the biological principles that have led to a new understanding of the causes of aging and… describes how these basic principles help one to understand the human experience of biological aging, longevity, and age-related disease. Intended for undergraduate biology students, it describes how the rate of biological aging is measured; explores the mechanisms underlying cellular aging; discusses the genetic pathways that affect longevity in various organisms; outlines the normal age-related changes and the functional decline that occurs in physiological systems over the lifespan; and considers the implications of modulating the rate of aging and longevity. The book also includes end-of-chapter discussion questions to help students assess their knowledge of the material.
The 21st century has seen growing numbers of seniors turning to migration in response to newfound challenges to traditional forms… of retirement and old-age support, such as increased longevity, demographically aging populations, and global neoliberal trends reducing state welfare. Chinese-born migrants to the U.S. serve as an exemplary case of this trend, with 30 percent of all migrants since 1990 being at least 60 years old. This book tells their story, arguing that they demonstrate the significance of age as a mediating factor that is fundamentally important for considering how migration is experienced. The subjects of this study are situated at the crossroads of Chinese immigrant and Chinese-American experiences, embodying many of the ambiguities and paradoxes that complicate common understandings of each group. These are older individuals who have waited their whole lives to migrate to the U.S. to rejoin family but often experience unanticipated family conflict when they arrive. They are retirees living at the social and economic margins of American society who nonetheless find significant opportunities to achieve meaningful retired lifestyles. They are members of a diaspora spanning vast regional and ideological differences, yet their wellbeing hinges on everyday interactions with others in this diverse community. Their stories highlight the many possibilities for mutual engagement that connect Chinese and American ways of being and belonging in the world.