Kategoria BISAC: Social Science >> Gerontology

This incisive work reviews the salient aspects of the demographic, social, and economic characteristics of the aging of the population of the United States. It deals not only with the past and current aspects of population aging but also emphasizes the future outlook with regard to characteristics of the elderly and relative size and composition of the future older population. The book begins with a retrospective review of the population aging process of the United States throughout the twentieth century and continues with a prospective view of aging through most of the next century....

Successful survivors speak for themselves in this exhaustive study of the lives, attitudes, and lifestyles of more than 500 centenarians. A product of the late pioneer gerontological researcher Belle Boone Beard's over forty years of teaching, study, research, and writing in the field of aging, the book extends the author's belief that centenarians have a grasp of the essence of life itself. The volume, not a statistical research report, is based on the largest collection of data on centenarians to date. The centenarians describe their characteristics, lifestyles, and personal philosophies...

The status of older adults has become increasingly important in our aging society. Print and non-print media both reflect and shape society's attitude toward the aged. This bibliography documents the now extensive research on the depiction of older adults in print and non-print media. The volume includes more than 550 entries for books and articles. The entries are arranged in 21 topical chapters, and each citation is accompanied by a detailed annotation. The author and subject indexes that conclude the work enhance its value as a reference.

The volume begins with an introduction that...

Statistics show that women live longer than men, and that they constitute a substantial majority of the North American population over age 50. But more research has been done on the lives of older men, and the lack of empirical data on aging women has perpetuated a number of myths and stereotypes. Twenty years ago, for example, there was a presumption that only males worked and only males retired, though women often held jobs outside the home and these jobs were sometimes their only source of income. Studies of retirement, therefore, rarely treated the experience of women. Many fallacies...

Following an introduction that outlines the history and projects the future of gerontology, the authors offer insightful profiles of roughly 300 researchers, teachers, and practitioners in aging. North Americans are heavily represented, though gerontologists from Great Britain and the Continent are included as well. The dictionary can be read for an overview of the field, while cross-listings and a complete name and subject index make it an ideal reference. Each entry contains a professional and academic biography, along with citations and succinct descriptions of the individual's...

This first-hand empirical study of elderly Soviet Jews who immigrated to Israel during the Great Exodus of 1989 to 1991 demonstrates the double jeopardy of transnational relocation in later life. The book traces the depletions that occurred in the elderly immigrants' social networks and examines the impact of a range of network factors on their personal well-being. Given the dearth of systematic field research into the problems and needs of elderly immigrants, and of this group in particular, gerontologists and sociologists will find this case study invaluable. Students, teachers,...

Many older people, indeed the majority, have many years of relatively good health after the usual retirement age. Contrary to widely accepted stereotypes, evidence indicates that those who wish to use their skills and abilities for productive contributions may encounter significant barriers.

Bass, Caro, and Chen and the experts who contributed to the volume provide an original reassessment of the current options available to older people. The authors argue that polices, practices, and societal messages help determine what choices are realistically open to older individuals. The...

The nursing assistant has a special and vital role in nursing home care. Providing continuous and close relationships with the nursing home residents, the assistance is challenged daily to solve the numerous problems that arise in working with the elderly. It is frequently the assistant who must find ways to help when residents refuse to get up, become incontinent, cannot find the dining room, cannot sleep, grieve over their families' failure to visit, argue with other residents, make excessive demands for personal care, imagine illnesses and demons, and fear death.

This book is...

This is the first book in anthropology to provide strategies for the collection of qualitative and comparative data about aging, representing state-of-the-art techniques including cross-cultural and life-cycle studies of aging. Covering ethnic communities in the United States as well as other countries, this book is an indispensable resource and critical guide to research methods for professionals and students of gerontology, anthropology, and the social sciences in general.

What is dementia? How should we organize dementia care? This comprehensive book critically examines the main approaches to understanding dementia-bio-medical, social-psychological, and socio-gerontological-and the main principles and ideologies of care.

Key FeaturesProvides clarity on the gap between the utopian aspirations of care and the reality of care Opens up a series of questions about knowledge and treatment of dementiaArgues for a transition from positions that place emphasis upon the individual or particular care services to the social, cultural, and economic context