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, policymakers, social service providers, and other professional practitioners will gain from the findings about elderly immigrants' network relationships and from practical suggestions for the planning of effective network interventions on their behalf.

By supporting and influencing their families and communities, grandparents--and those who act as grandparents--can play a key role in today's society. Their special mission is derived from a strong sense of purpose and direction that develops from making significant contributions to family life. These include compiling and recounting family histories, maintaining meaningful relationships among different generations, opening up family communications, explaining social changes, and participating in community life. With the aid of real-life examples of intergenerational family dynamics, the author--a clinical sociologist who has practiced family therapy for more than 25 years--presents principles, techniques, and perspectives for today's grandparents.

""Taking Care of Barbara" is an inspirational resource book for anyone living in the world of Alzheimer's. There are clear and concise caregiver tips and references in dealing with the everyday struggles that come with the progression of the disease. What a gift to know and be able to anticipate the needs of our loved one when they may not be able to communicate them. Most importantly, this book is a celebration of family and the relationship between the caregiver and the patient. It lifts the caregiver above the everyday struggles and reminds us of where to find the strength and joy in the frequent frustrations of the day. It inspires us to love beyond the external happenings and shows us there lies a deeper and greater gain that will enrich our spirit. The world of Alzheimer's may feel overwhelming, but this book encourages caregivers to get out of bed, put their feet on the floor and face the day with renewed strength and purpose."
-Kelly Cason Hunter, Hospice Volunteer, Pediatric Nurse

This very first comprehensive book-length reference guide dealing with older adult education synthesizes current information about theoretical developments with specific practical details about the latest programs, policies, and research in the field. It is unique in placing the subject of lifelong learning into historical perspectives, discussing ways in which programs have been transformed over the last 15 to 20 years, and in considering the impact of institutional policies on older adult education. This guide points to demographic trends relating to aging and older learners; discusses older learner motives in relation to program missions and rationales; describes new opportunities for retirement-age people and the special role of education today; reviews the history of 12 different types of programs; compares five community-based model programs in college and universities, senior centers, shopping centers, and churches and synagogues; considers computer and electronic learning programs; reviews research and programs dealing with intergenerational education; and assesses future prospects in the field. Appendices describe important organizations, programs, sources of information, state tuition waiver policies, and other guidelines and data. Relevant statistics, research findings, numerous tables, original documents, and anecdotes about the experiences of older learners further enrich this state-of-the discipline reference guide for academic, professional, and public libraries and broad audiences of teachers, students, professionls, and general readers concerned with older Americans.

When Congress enacted Social Secuirty in 1935, with the age of retirement set at age 65, average life expectancy was 62 years. By the time Medicare was enacted 30 years later, life expectancy had risen to age 70. Since the enactment of Medicare, life expectancy has risen to age 76 today and may be expected to increase further in the decades to come. Clearly, the increase in post-retirement life expectancy has significant implications for the level of national expenditures attributable to an aging population. One of the approaches suggested as a solution to the so-called income transfer problem is to redefine old age, that is, to push retirement and its associated benefits off to a later age. This would effectively increase the size of the workforce, with older workers continuing to contribute their payroll taxes for an extended period of time. The critical question Sicker poses is, will there be enough appropriate employment opportunities for a growing number of older workers in the workforce of the future? The evidence for a positive response is far from clear or compelling.

Sicker examines the prospective place of the aging worker in the employment environment of the 21st century in light of the restructuring of American business and the world of work in the final decades of the last century. In doing so, he raises serious concerns about the validity and utility of some of the neoclassical economic ideas and assumptions that have become part of the conventional wisdom of our time. Sicker contends that these dubious propositions have unwittingly contributed signficantly to the problem through their manifestation in public policy. However, the principal focus of his analysis is not on economic theory as such, but on the realities and uncertainties that an aging American workforce will face in the decades to come. This book is significant reading for scholars, researchers, and the general public interested in labor force and aging policy issues.

The toughness model proposed in this book incorporates psychological research and neuroscience to explain how a variety of toughening activities - ranging from confronting mental and physical challenges to meditation - sustain our brains and bodies, and ultimately build our mental and psychological capacities degenerated by stress and by aging.

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This book provides a critical understanding of contemporary issues within global society and how these relate to six case study examples (UK, USA, China, India, South Africa, Bangladesh, and Japan). The authors draw on their diverse experience to explore four major themes of contemporary relevance: overall aging of societies; governance and institutions; emergency services and public health provisions; and community activism and involvement. The key issues within the book--sociability, social capital, and community development--are examined in the context of an ever increasing aging world. The authors' sense of optimism is linked to growing evidence that community activism is on the rise and can effectively plug the gap between public need and provision of service.

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 in response to questions such as: What characteristics and daily living patterns aided their longevity? and Do centenarians have answers about survival and successful living? Separate sections address the areas of health, education, socioeconomic status, work, social life, philosophy, romance, and individuality. Beard's insights regarding the personal characteristics and principles by which centenarians live contain some unexpected findings in the areas of social relationships and social environments. This posthumously edited volume is faithful to Beard's goals, writing style, and content themes. The five-part volume begins with an introduction that contains an overview of centenarians from the point of view of the author's forty years of study. Part II describes some of the personal characteristics of centenarians' daily lives and points up important commonalities in actions, thought, and goals. Centenarians' contributions in the areas of work, family, and community are presented in Part III, which highlights their imagination, work ethic, and persistent romantic feeling about all of life. The focus of Part IV is on the relationship between personal growth achievements and national history. The last part reports on the study's findings and suggests further research implications. The appendices contribute documentation, fifteen short stories by or about centenarians, and a form for contacting the Belle Boone Beard Gerontology Center. Excellent supplemental reading for courses in Interdisciplinary Gerontology, Sociology of Aging, Psychology of Aging, and Demographics, this volume will also be of interest to any reader who wishes to learn about the correlates of extreme longevity.

In this deeply considered meditation on aging in Western culture, Jan Baars argues that, in today's world, living longer does not necessarily mean living better. He contends that there has been an overall loss of respect for aging, to the point that understanding and "dealing with" aging people has become a process focused on the decline of potential and the advance of disease rather than on the accumulation of wisdom and the creation of new skills.

To make his case, Baars compares and contrasts the works of such modern-era thinkers as Foucault, Heidegger, and Husserl with the thought of Plato, Aristotle, Sophocles, Cicero, and other Ancient and Stoic philosophers. He shows how people in the classical period--less able to control health hazards--had a far better sense of the provisional nature of living, which led to a philosophical and religious emphasis on cultivating the art of living and the idea of wisdom. This is not to say that modern society's assessments of aging are insignificant, but they do need to balance an emphasis on the measuring of age with the concept of "living in time."

Gerontologists, philosophers, and students will find Baars' discussion to be a powerful, perceptive conversation starter.

This volume develops a comprehensive multivariate paradigm of the process of aging, delineating the factors underlying age-related degeneration. The model is aimed at understanding the conditions under which age sets into motion a process of degeneration. Accumulating evidence suggests that age per se is not the decisive factor in age-related regression--leading scholars to distinguish between chronological and functional age. The process of degeneration is evidently due to the combined impact of deleterious biophysiological, psychological, and socio-cultural factors and the interaction among them.

Based on this evidence, Zeev Ben-Sira shows how age-related degeneration can be viewed as a product of a damaging cycle of reciprocally activating stimuli from the person's internal and external environment. Consequently, aging is conceptualized as a process of bio-psychosocial regression. The paradigm outlined in this volume identifies factors that are likely to accelerate or decelerate the process of aging.

This multidisciplinary guide to the literature and research about the physical and psychological aspects of successful, normal, and productive aging is designed for students, teachers, and practitioners who deal with the elderly. The introduction discusses perceptions of aging well. The 500 entries are arranged alphabetically by author under nine topics: physical aging, psychological aging, social aging, family, living arrangements, work and economics, education and leisure, politics, and religion. An appendix covers sources dealing with the measurement of aging well. The careful author and subject indexes make this annotated bibliography easy-to-use for researchers in the fields of history, economics, psychology, sociology, law, theology, demography, public health, political science, home economics, family studies, women's studies, pharmacy, and health administration, among others.

"Dying With Open Eyes" is a valuable resource for caregivers of those suffering from the devastating effects of Alzheimer's disease. After eleven years of caring for her mother, author Jennie Swanson Dincecco, EdD, shares her insight into the daily struggles and emotional upheavals, as well as the helplessness and frustration she encountered during this trying period. Packed with helpful information, "Dying With Open Eyes" offers hope for caregivers and their families. From early warning signs to in-depth descriptions of each stage of the disease, Dinececco provides answers to commonly asked questions about Alzheimer's disease, such as: What is Alzheimer's? What causes Alzheimer's? What does it cost to care for an Alzheimer's patient? When is Alzheimer's usually diagnosed? Is Alzheimer's genetic? How long can a person live with Alzheimer's? Can the onset of Alzheimer's be delayed? Nothing can prepare someone to be a caregiver for a loved one with Alzheimer's disease. In "Dying With Open Eyes," Dincecco captures her touching story of surviving one of the toughest experiences of her life, and how she found comfort, peace, and finally--happiness. All proceeds of "Dying With Open Eyes" will be donated to the Alzheimer's Association.

There has been a widespread fascination with age-dissimilar couples in recent years. This book examines how the romantic relationships of these couples are understood. Based on qualitative research, McKenzie investigates notions of autonomy, relatedness, contradiction, and change in age-dissimilar relationships and romantic love.

The monograph disseminates the very topical issue of retirement and its timing as the key to one of the greatest challenges facing ageing societies. Postponing retirement is now almost universally regarded as indispensable in order to relieve European welfare states from the demography-related financial pressures. This seminal study, derived from a statistical analysis of a large-scale survey data, provides a thorough understanding of the micro- and macro-level determinants of retirement timing in contemporary Western Europe. The book is the first monograph to combine the analysis of the retirement attitudes with the analysis of the retirement behaviour within one research. It tackles the question as to whether early retirement can be explained by "early exit culture", triangulating life course theory with a social stratification approach. The author used a novel and innovative approach to obtain the results. The methodology includes: tobit models of proscriptive age norms; simulations of the impact of class structure on a country's average retirement age; competing risks models of different work-exit modalities; duration selection models of retirement timing.

"Americans at Midlife" is an exploration of the middle years within the framework of trends in the larger society, including longer life expectancy and an aging population; changes in marriage, divorce, and family composition; increased participation of women in the labor force; and the growth of two-income families.Major interests at midlife center around work and careers, current and future economic well-being, and planning for retirement. Other major concerns involve relationships with younger and older generations: boomerang kids who leave home and return, and aging parents, often healthy and active now, who may need care in their later years.

The book begins with a discussion of how demographic and social changes affect midlife, followed by chapters on work and retirement planning or looking for the good years, the not-so-empty nest, and aging parents. A chapter on mid-life women considers the implications of combining work and caregiving and raises concerns about their economic well-being, given their longer life expectancy and often more limited resources. The book ends with a consideration of policy issues that may affect midlife in the future.

The present book intends to provide an update on immunosenescence and how deficiencies in the immune system contribute to a higher susceptibility to infections, decline in organ function, reduced vaccination responses, age-related disease and the ageing process itself, negatively affecting longevity. Our focus is on the main changes in immune system cells and their products occurring during the ageing process and the possible consequences for health and disease. This includes: discussion of the modulatory and/or suppressive mechanisms associated with the alterations in T regulatory cells, B regulatory cells and Myeloid Derived Suppressor cells; changes in the immune system observed in chronic neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, lung disease and frailty will also be discussed. Most importantly we provide recent literature information about possible interventions (focusing on physical activity) that could alleviate the negative effects of immunosenescence. The Ageing Immune System and Health is a comprehensive guide on the field intended to all physicians, researchers, professors and students interested on relationship between immune system, ageing and health.

This book presents a wealth of insights and new conceptualizations for the development of "Assistive Technologies for the Interaction of the Elderly." The book arranges the chaptersaccording to important aspects of maximizing the use value in innovation projects. Every chapter will include an executive summary reporting the main results, a storyline using everyday language, and scientific excursions, wherever useful.

The book shows how an innovation project should be structured towards maximum use value and how a project should be structured in order to make a difference. It describes the useful categorization of the large group of the elderly to maximize the focus of the innovation and demonstrates the user involvement into innovation activities. Of course, the assessment of such innovative projects is discussed as well as the lessons learned . The book also explores the business opportunities and the financial evaluation of aspects of assistive technology.

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The growing number of elder men providing hands-on care to loved ones, particularly spouses, undeniably represents a hidden segment of the home care population. With that in consideration, caregiving in communities of color, in particular, is increasing while numbers of informal (unpaid) caregivers are projected to triple by 2030. Despite statistics, studies on African-American men who care for other elders (such as spouses and parents) - indeed, "the hidden among the hidden" - are negligible. This text follows a study conducted by Helen Black, a research scientist focusing on aging, alongside John Groce and Charles Harmon, founders of Mature Africans Learning from Each Other (M.A.L.E.), in which they interviewed elderly African-American men in caregiver roles. As a whole, The Hidden Among the Hidden is unique in its study of caregiving in the areas of subject matter, methodology, and presentation of findings. The men whose attitudes and behaviors toward caregiving are recorded in this book share a wealth of knowledge for other caregivers, gerontologists, healthcare professionals, students, and the community in general.

Care for the elderly has increased in both duration and intensity, particularly because of better medical conditions resulting in increased lifespan. Thus understanding the numerous dimensions of ageing will play a consequential role in determining future national policies. This book addresses a wide spectrum of issues faced by the elderly in India, Sri Lanka and the Netherlands, primarily from social and economic perspectives. South Asian cultures more than others have traditionally endorsed living arrangements that entail co-residence of aged parents with their children, which has been the crux of the support system of the aged. Significant shifts in family structure spurred by modernization prompted increased family nucleation.

All three countries offer interesting insights as India is projected to have an ageing population of 90 million in the near future, and Sri Lanka has one of the highest proportions of ageing people in the developing world. By delving further, one can view these trends in the context of widespread poverty and inadequate social security systems in India, and high human development indicators in Sri Lanka.

A practical overview of clinical issues related to end-of-life care, including grief and bereavement

The needs of individuals with life-limiting or terminal illness and those caring for them are well documented. However, meeting these needs can be challenging, particularly in the absence of a well-established evidence base about how best to help. In this informative guide, editors Sara Qualls and Julia Kasl-Godley have brought together a notable team of international contributors to produce a clear structure offering mental health professionals a framework for developing the competencies needed to work with end-of-life care issues, challenges, concerns, and opportunities.

Part of the "Wiley Series in Clinical Geropsychology, " this thorough and up-to-date guide answers complex questions often asked by patients, their families and caregivers, and helping professionals as well, including:

How does dying occur, and how does it vary across illnesses?

What are the spiritual issues that are visible in end-of-life care?

How are families engaged in end-of-life care, and what services and support can mental health clinicians provide them?

How should providers address mental disorders that appear at the end of life?

What are the tools and strategies involved in advanced care planning, and how do they play out during end-of-life care?

Sensitively addressing the issues that arise in the clinical care of the actively dying, this timely book is filled with clinical illustrations, guidance, tips for practice, and encouragement. Written to equip mental health professionals with the information they need to guide families and others caring for the needs of individuals with life-threatening and terminal illnesses, "End-of-Life Issues, Grief, and Bereavement" presents a rich resource for caregivers for the psychological, sociocultural, interpersonal, and spiritual aspects of care at the end of life.

Also in the "Wiley Series in Clinical Geropsychology""Psychotherapy for Depression in Older Adults""Changes in Decision-Making Capacity in Older Adults: Assessment and Intervention""Aging Families and Caregiving"

Examines and clarifies the role of adult children as service providers to elderly parents. Drawing upon extensive interviews with elderly parents and adult children, the author describes how each group perceives the relative importance of helping services and suggests means by which children can increase helping behavior.