Title search results
Showing 121 - 140 of 1124 items
Group Activities with Older Adults
By Vicki Dent. 2003
If you have responsibility for providing activities for older adults and you aren't sure whether what you are providing is…
effective, or you have exhausted all your own activity ideas then this book is for you. This clear and easy-to-use resource provides the tools you require to develop and implement a range of activities that meet the needs of your group. Structured around the ten areas of activity need - cognitive, creative, cultural, educational/employment, emotional, physical, self-esteem, sensory, social and spiritual - this book is a resource of activity ideas with hints, tips and suggestions for successful planning and delivery, and guidance on recording and evaluating activity programmes. It explores some of the adaptations required to meet the needs of younger clients, those with dementia, and those with communication difficulties. It is an ideal resource for anyone working with elderly people wanting to improve on an existing activity programme, or wishing to commence one.Housing Decisions for the Elderly: To Move or Not to Move
By Leon A Pastalan. 1995
Because many elderly wish to age in place, they typically give little thought to the future of their housing options.…
Housing Decisions for the Elderly articulates the relevant issues regarding the diversity and complexity of housing decisions in terms of moving or not moving.To move or not to move is really part of the aging-in-place debate. In this guidebook, the authors deal with such issues as changes in economic income and stances; changes in household composition and health; and the psychosocial and metaphysical significance of “house.”This treatment of housing decisions regarding aging in place serves to assist professionals and laypersons to help the elderly make more informed choices and to plan better for the future. Housing Decisions for the Elderly reminds those who work with elderly persons--community organization workers; housing counselors and specialists; home health care agencies; and gerontologists--that the proportion of persons living in family settings decreases with age, so that the older the person, the more likely he or she will be living above or with nonrelatives in institutional or quasi-institutional settings.While changes in household composition typically occur at one or more points in the aging process such as death of spouse, incapacitating illness or loss of income, other housing issues to consider are addressed:why socioeconomic determinants of housing decisions of elderly homeowners focuses primarily on housing characteristics (owning vs. renting), length of housing tenure, age, and support from relatives how elderly housing assistance programs affect housing tenure deals with age as the single most important factor factors that influence pre-retiree’s propensity to move at retirement access to health care, freedom from house maintenance, and supportive services as the main determinants of moving to a continuing care retirement communityLongitudinal Data Analysis: A Practical Guide for Researchers in Aging, Health, and Social Sciences (Multivariate Applications Series)
By Scott M. Hofer, Jason T. Newsom, Richard N. Jones. 2012
This book provides accessible treatment to state-of-the-art approaches to analyzing longitudinal studies. Comprehensive coverage of the most popular analysis tools…
allows readers to pick and choose the techniques that best fit their research. The analyses are illustrated with examples from major longitudinal data sets including practical information about their content and design. Illustrations from popular software packages offer tips on how to interpret the results. Each chapter features suggested readings for additional study and a list of articles that further illustrate how to implement the analysis and report the results. Syntax examples for several software packages for each of the chapter examples are provided at www.psypress.com/longitudinal-data-analysis. Although many of the examples address health or social science questions related to aging, readers from other disciplines will find the analyses relevant to their work. In addition to demonstrating statistical analysis of longitudinal data, the book shows how to interpret and analyze the results within the context of the research design. The methods covered in this book are applicable to a range of applied problems including short- to long-term longitudinal studies using a range of sample sizes. The book provides non-technical, practical introductions to the concepts and issues relevant to longitudinal analysis. Topics include use of publicly available data sets, weighting and adjusting for complex sampling designs with longitudinal studies, missing data and attrition, measurement issues related to longitudinal research, the use of ANOVA and regression for average change over time, mediation analysis, growth curve models, basic and advanced structural equation models, and survival analysis. An ideal supplement for graduate level courses on data analysis and/or longitudinal modeling taught in psychology, gerontology, public health, human development, family studies, medicine, sociology, social work, and other behavioral, social, and health sciences, this multidisciplinary book will also appeal to researchers in these fields.The Elderly Uncooperative Patient
By T. L. Brink. 1987
Leisureville: Adventures in a World Without Children
By Andrew D. Blechman. 2008
This revealing profile “disappears down the rabbit hole [into] the largest gated retirement community in the world” and what it…
discovers is “fascinating” (The New York Times). When his next-door neighbors pick up and move from New England to an age-restricted “active adult” development in Florida called The Villages, Andrew D. Blechman is astonished by their stories—and determined to investigate. Sprawling across two zip codes, with a golf course for every day of the month, two downtowns, its own newspaper, radio, and TV station, The Villages is a prefab paradise for retired Baby Boomers, where “not having children around seems to free [them] to act like adolescents” (The New York Times). In the critically acclaimed Leisureville, Blechman delves into this senior utopia, offering a hilarious firsthand report on everything from ersatz nostalgia to the residents’ surprisingly active sex life. Blechman also traces the history of this phenomenon, travelling to Arizona to find out what pioneering developments like Sun City and Youngtown have become after decades of segregation. Blending incisive social commentary and colorful reportage, “Blechman describes this brave new world with determined good humor and considerable bemusement” (Katherine A. Powers, The Boston Globe).Family Meals: Bringing Her Home
By Michael Tucker. 2009
Michael Tucker and his wife Jill Eikenberry are enjoying the early years of retirement in their dream house, a beautiful…
350-year-old stone farmhouse in the central Italian province of Umbria, but Jill’s mother Lora is a constant source of worry. Lora is eighty-seven and her second husband of many years, Ralph, has just turned ninety-one. Jill is traveling frequently to Lora and Ralph’s home in Santa Barbara from the Tucker’s pied-à-terre in New York, disrupting their plans to vacation in Italy for 6 months of the year. The elderly couple (Lora and Ralph, that is) have transitioned from independent living to an Assisted Care facility in Santa Barbara; Ralph has just had a third heart attack and suffers from chronic back pain, while Lora is beginning to slip mentally and is nearly deaf, although she refuses to wear a hearing aid.In fact, the couple is preparing to take a much needed three-month vacation in Italy when life gets in the way. Michael and Jill must visit Lora and Ralph in Santa Barbara, making sure that everything in the elders’ lives is in order-their finances, their caretaking situation, their apartment. The couple then returns to Italy for much-needed respite, and prepare to be joined by their friends, the Shechtmans and the Liedermans. In preparation, Michael and Jill drive into town and purchase tickets for a symphony concert of the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra in the magnificent Spoleto Cathedral, a program that is part of the celebrated Spoleto Festival. After a fabulous meal at one of their favorite restaurants, Jill and Michael walk home and as they prepare to get to bed Jill learns the terrible news that Ralph has passed away.Jill has received the call from Josie, Ralph’s caretaker, that he has died-he has suffered a series of small yet fatal strokes-and Jill calls her mother and breaks the news, as Lora has not yet been told. Michael is able to book tickets for the couple to fly home, and calls his children, who will also travel to California to be with Lora. When they get there, a lot is to be done. Ralph is cremated, and Michael and Jill must meet with Ralph’s daughter Kathy and review Ralph’s finances, and meanwhile must take control over Lora’s finances and medical insurance. Lora has many friends in Santa Barbara, and they assure the Tuckers that they will care for Jill’s mom, and so Michael and Jill return to Italy to resume their life.What happens next is a brilliant surprise that neither Michael nor Jill could have expected or planned. Lora decides to move from her home in Santa Barbara to New York City, and finds an apartment in the building in which Michael and Jill live. Then Michael and Jill’s children, Alison and Max, decide not only to relocate to Manhattan but also move in together, reuniting the Tucker/Eikenberry clan after years of separation.Michael Tucker brings alive the joys and challenges that families give us. Family Meals is a heart-warming, beautifully told story of his own unique family and the journeys each of them have taken. It is a book that addresses a fact of life all of us will face-aging-with remarkable charm, sympathy and warmth, and a celebratory book that explores the responsibility we have to our families. It is also a book that explores the different ways that families experience life-how different clans and different cultures celebrate, support, care and mourn.When I Die, Take My Panties: Turning Your Darkest Moments into Your Greatest Gifts
By Jennifer Coken. 2017
A daughter cares for her dying mother in this intimate memoir of ovarian cancer, frank conversations, and finding peace through…
laughter and gratitude. In 2006, Jennifer Coken’s mother was diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer. She had a slim chance of living another five years, but she chose to spend her remaining days tap dancing through chemotherapy and loving her family and friends ferociously. In this witty and heartfelt memoir, Jennifer recounts how she found the strength to care for her mother and cope with her death while facing troubles in her own life. Challenging circumstances force us to face a harsh reality; so often we want to control life—and the truth is we can’t. This is a story of how personal transformation can come from tragedy if we are willing to find it. Above all, it is a wake-up call for anyone who needs the courage to have heartfelt conversations with the people they love right here, right now.All the Wild Hungers: A Season of Cooking and Cancer
By Karen Babine. 2019
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 TribuneThe Aging Networks: A Guide To Policy, Programs, And Services
By Kelly Niles-Yokum, Donna L. Wagner. 2019
This classic text―more relevant than ever as our population rapidly ages―delivers comprehensive and up-to-date knowledge about aging services in the…
U.S. Written for both students and practitioners of gerontology, along with all professionals involved in the well-being of older adults, this highly accessible book provides a current and detailed description and analysis of local to global services for older people with or without cognitive, physical, or social needs. The Ninth Edition is updated to reflect critical changes to legislation, health care, and recent trends. It focuses on the strengths and diversity of older adults and the role our multilayered aging networks play in advocacy, community independence, and engagement. Commentary and critical thinking challenges from policymakers, program directors, and educators facilitate high-level reasoning and independent analysis of aging networks past, present, and future. The ninth edition also offers enhanced resources including a Test Bank, Instructor’s Manual, PowerPoint slides, and links to video. Additionally, the print version of the book includes free, searchable, digital access to the entire contents.Redefining Aging: A Caregiver's Guide to Living Your Best Life
By Ann Kaiser Stearns. 2017
The bestselling author of Living Through Personal Crisis delivers &“a comprehensive guide to the challenges of elder care for family…
members&” (Jesse F. Ballenger, coeditor of Treating Dementia). Caring for an elderly family member can be overwhelming. But fulfilling life experiences are still possible for both caregivers and their loved ones, despite the stress and fatigue of caregiving. In this comprehensive book, bestselling author Ann Kaiser Stearns explores the practical and personal challenges of both caregiving and successful aging. She couples findings from the latest research with powerful insights and problem-solving tips to help caregivers achieve the best life possible for those they care for—and for themselves as they age. Topics include: Improving the quality of life for the one giving and the one receiving careDistinguishing normal aging from early warning signsUnderstanding caregiver sadness, resentment, guilt, and griefUsing strategies and skills to minimize an impaired elder&’s distress and emotional outbursts and the caregiver&’s own anxieties about growing oldFinding resources to aid in the care of the loved one and protect the caregiver from stress overloadMoving forward after the death of a loved one to have a meaningful life of one&’s ownOvercoming ageist stereotypes and deciding what kind of &“old person&” one will beMaking life easier for those who someday will care for usRedefining Aging will help readers think differently about caregiving and their own aging.&“Ann Kaiser Stearns offers a wide-ranging and thoughtful discussion of lessons learned about the joys and challenges of caregiving for a chronically ill loved one.&” —Peter V. Rabins, MD, MPH, coauthor of The 36-Hour DayHow do digital technologies shape both how people care for each other and, through that, who they are? With technological…
innovation is on the rise and increasing migration introducing vast distances between family members--a situation additionally complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the requirements of physical distancing, especially for the most vulnerable – older adults--this is a pertinent question. Through ethnographic fieldwork among families of migrating nurses from Kerala, India, Tanja Ahlin explores how digital technologies shape elder care when adult children and their aging parents live far apart. Coming from a country in which appropriate elder care is closely associated with co-residence, these families tinker with smartphones and social media to establish how care at a distance can and should be done to be considered good. Through the notion of transnational care collectives, Calling Family uncovers the subtle workings of digital technologies on care across countries and continents when being physically together is not feasible. Calling Family provides a better understanding of technological relationality that can only be expected to further intensify in the future.Time and Performer Training
By Mark Evans, Konstantinos Thomaidis, Libby Worth. 2019
Time and Performer Training addresses the importance and centrality of time and temporality to the practices, processes and conceptual thinking…
of performer training. Notions of time are embedded in almost every aspect of performer training, and so contributors to this book look at: age/aging and children in the training context how training impacts over a lifetime the duration of training and the impact of training regimes over time concepts of timing and the ‘right’ time how time is viewed from a range of international training perspectives collectives, ensembles and fashions in training, their decay or endurance. Through focusing on time and the temporal in performer training, this book offers innovative ways of integrating research into studio practices. It also steps out beyond the more traditional places of training to open up time in relation to contested training practices that take place online, in festival spaces and in folk or amateur practices. Ideal for both instructors and students, each section of this well-illustrated book follows a thematic structure and includes full-length chapters alongside shorter provocations. Featuring contributions from an international range of authors who draw on their backgrounds as artists, scholars and teachers, Time and Performer Training is a major step in our understanding of how time affects the preparation for performance.Ageing and Families: A Support Networks Perspective (Routledge Library Editions: Family)
By Hal L. Kendig. 1986
Originally published in 1986, this title was a landmark study of ageing in Australia and a major contribution to the…
study of gerontology at the time. It highlights major themes on ageing in ‘western’ industrialised societies, as well as pinpointing new, emerging themes. For instance, the initial speculations in the 1960s that informal groups such as the family, neighbours, and friends play crucial helping roles for older people. The book also presents data and summarises past studies that show the common characteristics of those delivering and receiving services, such as the special role of women; and within that gender related services, the special importance of children and spouses, the importance of close proximity when people are chronically disabled, the fact that most retired people manage their own lives without help and in fact provide services to their children, and much more, is dealt with. It also looks at how such informal support works alongside the formal agencies, such as nursing homes. The systematic study of how informal and formal systems link together was one of the gaps in gerontological research at the time.When a Loved One Has Dementia: A Comforting Companion for Family and Friends
By Eveline Helmink. 2021
&“An open-hearted and honest look at the reality of caring for someone with this life-changing diagnosis. Eveline generously shares her…
experiences, insights, and practical tools to cultivate compassion, acceptance, and love, even during the most painful experiences.&”—Dr. Nicole LePera, New York Times–bestselling author of How to Do the Work A vital source of solace and compassion for those whose loved one has dementia, rooted in the author&’s unflinching experience of caring for her mother Dementia enters life through the back door, slipping in unnoticed. Once it&’s there, it can make you feel powerless, angry, and unsure how to move forward. When her mother developed dementia, Eveline Helmink wasn&’t prepared. As she learned firsthand, when your loved one is suffering, it takes a toll on you, too. As you navigate finding professional caregivers and adapting to your loved one&’s behavioral challenges, this book will help you confront all the complexities of the experience. Identify healthy and unhealthy coping mechanisms. Work through feelings of denial, grief, guilt, shame, and fear. Summon the courage to make decisions in your loved one&’s best interest. Live in the present, find laughter, and show love in the face of dementia. When a Loved One Has Dementia weaves together Eveline&’s unflinching personal account and her empathetic guidance, allowing you to walk through the endless tunnel and illuminating the path to acceptance, forgiveness, and love.The Big Move: Life Between The Turning Points
By Margaret Morganroth Gullette. 2016
When her husband's ill health forces them to move into an assisted living facility, Anne Wyatt-Brown suddenly finds herself surrounded…
by elderly residents, mostly sick or disabled. In this short but provocative collection, distinguished gerontologists reflect on Anne's moving account of her transition from a vibrant, independent, and scholarly life to one that is quieter, slower, and that takes up considerably less space. By questioning notions of care and community, stigmas of aging, and the psychological factors involved in accepting assistance, this volume provides an instructive framework for thinking about aging, continued care, and our last big move.Your Room at the End: Thoughts About Aging We'd Rather Avoid (Your Room At The End Ser.)
By Charlie Hudson. 2011
&“A very thought-provoking read. Aging and end-of-life preparation is . . . an important discussion . . . It can…
help make a difficult time less stressful.&”—Sylvia E. J. Kidd, Director of Family Programs, Association of the US ArmyAfter enduring several painful months witnessing the decline and ultimate death of a loved one, author Charlie Hudson recognized that she needed to radically change her views on the realities of aging. Known for her easy storytelling style in both nonfiction and fiction, Hudson departs from her usual subject matter here, tackling aging, mental decline, and death—topics we so often avoid.&“Your Room at the End will help you sidestep the many landmines, offering direct advice armed with practical knowledge.&”—Julie Hall, author of The Boomer Burden&“Charlie Hudson is amazing! She opened her heart to someone who was dying and embraced the unique nature of the journey we all face. The book is not only about Charlie&’s journey but more importantly, it is about the problems she observed and the solutions that she sought. Join Charlie as she shares her insights and her hope that you will find something in her experiences to share with your own family and &‘special family&’ of friends.&”—June B. Craig, PhD, nutrition and marketing consultant &“We should all say thank you to Charlie Hudson! She has taken a very difficult topic and beautifully turned it into a guide to use as we and our loved ones age. Her book really touched my heart.&”—Robin Benoit, author of Jillian&’s Story: How Vision Therapy Changed My Daughter&’s LifeThis Strange Visible Air: Essays on Aging and the Writing Life
By Sharon Butala. 2021
A collection of essays on women and aging from Canadian legend Sharon Butala "What I didn't have a clue about…
was that I was soon to be old, or what being old would mean to my dreams and desires. While dreading old age with every fibre, I was at the same time in full denial that it would ever happen to me, and so, was shocked down to the soles of my feet when it did." In this incisive collection, Sharon Butala reflects on the ways her life has changed as she's grown old. She knows that society fails the elderly massively, and so she tackles ageism and loneliness, friendship and companionship. She writes with pointed wit and acerbic humour about dinner parties and health challenges and forgetfulness and complicated family relationships and the pandemic -- and lettuce. And she tells her story with the tremendous skill and beauty of a writer who has masterfully honed her craft over the course of her storied four-decade career. Butala gives us a book to be cherished -- an elegant and expansive look at the complexities and desires of aging and the aged, standing in stark contrast to the stereotyped, simplistic portrayals of the elderly in our culture. This Strange Visible Air is a true gift.What if everything you think you know about getting older and staying healthy is wrong? Ed Park, M.D., offers the…
revolutionary idea that disease and aging in humans all arises from a single source: genetic errors caused by shortening of telomeres, or the sequences of DNA at the ends of our chromosomes. Telomeres naturally wear down over time, and thus when cells replicate (as they do all the time in our bodies), they’re creating progressively poorer-quality duplicates of themselves, like making a Xerox of a Xerox of a Xerox. Ultimately, the body deteriorates, resulting in a range of ailments, many of which we associate with aging—from diabetes to hypertension to macular degeneration to cancer. Happily, Ed tells us, it’s possible to slow or even reverse this process and effectively turn back the clock. In The Telomere Miracle, he explains cutting-edge science in a lively style, using illustrations and metaphors ranging from auto parts to superheroes. Then he shows readers how they can intervene in the aging process by boosting the activity of the enzyme telomerase naturally by understanding and optimizing six key areas of breathing, mindset, sleep, exercise, diet, and supplements.Risk and Social Work (Routledge Revivals)
By C Paul Brearley. 1982
First published in 1982, Risk and Social Work provides a useful framework for analysing risk in the social welfare context.…
Surprisingly, social work and other helping professions have hitherto given little attention to the use and meaning of ‘risk’, although the term is frequently employed, with clients and helpers being described as ‘at risk’, or ‘in danger’. The media have taken up these terms, noticeably in cases involving child abuse, the elderly and conditions in psychiatric institutions, often at the expense of our image of the social services. Paul Brearley’s discussion of the analysis and management of risk in social work will therefore be of value to people working in the helping professions. Mr. Brearley begins by establishing a series of definitions, drawing primarily from the commercial insurance field, and from the literature on scientific and workplace hazards. These definitions form the base for a framework of risk analysis which stresses the importance of values and the chance element in decision making about risk. He shows how this framework can be used in practice in emergency and risky situations, and looks at the management of hazards and uncertainty with particular reference to social work practice.Long Lives Are for the Rich is the title of a silent ominous program that affects the lives of millions…
of people. In all developed countries disadvantaged and, especially, poor people die much earlier than the most advantaged. During these shorter lives they suffer ten to twenty years longer from disabilities or chronic disease. This does not happen accidentally: health inequalities – including those between healthy and unhealthy life styles – are mainly caused by social inequalities that are reproduced over the life course. This crucial function of the life course has become painfully visible during its neoliberal reorganization since the early 1980s. Studies about aging over the life course, from birth to death, show the inhumane consequences as people get older. In spite of the enormous wealth that has been piled up in the US for a dwindling percentage of the population, there has been growing public indifference about the needs of those in jobs with low pay and high stress, but also about citizens from a broad middle class who can hardly afford high quality education or healthcare. However, this ominous program affects all: recent mortality rates show that all Americans, including the rich, are unhealthier and dying earlier than citizens of other developed countries. Moreover, the underlying social inequalities are tearing the population apart with nasty consequences for all citizens, including the rich. Although the public awareness of the consequences has been growing, neoliberal policies remain tempting for the economic and political elites of the developed world because of the enormous wealth that is flowing to the top. All this poses urgent questions of social justice. Unfortunately, the predominant studies of social justice along the life course help to reproduce these inequalities by neglecting them. This book analyzes the main dynamics of social inequality over the life course and proposes a theory of social justice that sketches a way forward for a country that is willing to invest in its greatest resource: the creative potential of its population.