Learn how to incorporate adult play therapy into your practice with this easy-to-use guide

In the Western world there has been a widening belief that play is not a trivial or childish pursuit but rather a prime pillar of mental health, along with love and work. Play Therapy with Adults presents original chapters written by a collection of international experts who examine the diverse approaches and clinical strategies available for successfully incorporating play therapy into adult-client sessions.

This timely guide covers healing through the use of a variety of play therapy techniques and methods. Various client groups and treatment settings are given special attention, including working with adolescents, the elderly, couples, individuals with dementia, and clients in group therapy.

Material is organized into four sections for easy reference:

• Dramatic role play
• Therapeutic humor
• Sand play and doll play
• Play groups, hypnoplay, and client-centered play

Play Therapy with Adults is a valuable book for psychologists, therapists, social workers, and counselors interested in helping clients explore themselves through playful activities.

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.

"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.

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.

"Transitions and the Lifecourse" investigates and challenges dominant interpretations of transitions in late life. Amanda Grenier takes a cross-national and interdisciplinary comparative approach to the topic of aging and the life course, yielding a fresh perspective on these transitions as well as considering some innovative strategies for addressing concerns related to them. Scholars and students interested in social gerontology, policy studies in health and social care, and older people's accounts of lived experience will find this book to be a stimulating read.

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"

"Ways of Aging" is an engaging collection of ten original essays on the experience of aging. Written and edited by social gerontologists, and focusing on everyday life, these essays draw from original case studies to feature diverse ways of growing and being older. Through in-depth interviews and first-person accounts, each essay gives a voice to the elderly, stressing the distinct and assorted identities that people develop as they grow older under different circumstances.

In straightforward and compelling prose, the authors feature the varied experiences of widows, African Americans, Native Americans, nursing home residents, gay and lesbian elders, and others. The essays provide vivid illustrations of both the complex differences of the aging experience and the surprising commonalities. The theme of a diverse, multifaceted aging experience links the various presentations.

Countering familiar stereotypes, "Ways of Aging" offers a unique perspective on the different pathways that may be taken through the later years.

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.

Using the concept of fulfilment and the framework of the serious leisure perspective, this book examines the signposts marking the fulfilment career. This career begins with an interest in a serious pursuit, leading to an efflorescence many years later in amateurism, hobbyism, volunteering, or devotee work - and ultimately deeper fulfilment.

Populations around the globe are ageing rapidly. This demographic shift affects families, market structures and social provisions. This timely volume, part of the Ageing and the Lifecourse series, argues that the lifecourse perspective helps us understand the causes and effects of population ageing. The lifecourse perspective suggests that individuals' experiences at an early age can influence their decisions and behaviour at a later age. This much-needed volume combines insights from different disciplines and real-life experiences to describe the theories and practices behind this idea. It therefore caters to the needs of scholars, practitioners and policy makers in a range of areas including sociology and political science.

"The rapid Asian fertility transitions of the last few decades will lead to population ageing in the coming decades in one country after another. Societies can choose how they will respond to the rising share of the elderly, but there is no choice about the inevitable demographic trend. In this important volume, ably edited by Evi Nurvidya Arifin and Aris Ananta, demographers, economists, sociologists, and anthropologists analyse the implications of population ageing for family and community welfare and public policy. Most importantly, the authors emphasize the opportunities, as well as the costs of population ageing. Older persons have always been a source of unpaid family labour, and with changes in public perceptions, many healthy and productive elderly can make significant contributions to the broader community and society." - Professor Charles Hirschman, Professor of Sociology, University of Washington. "Ageing is increasingly being recognized as an important emerging issue in Southeast Asia. This book is a timely contribution covering key issues and concerns on the subject and is a clear clarion call to view older persons as assets rather than liabilities. The comprehensive overview and analysis, and experiences from various countries presented by scholars make this book a useful resource for better understanding of the critical issues. The thoughtful proposals provided for necessary future action on concerns that need to be addressed are worthy of consideration especially for building inclusive societies." - Dr Thelma Kay, Director, Social Development Division, UNESCAP, Bangkok. "A welcome and timely volume that realistically considers the challenges that the rapid increase in older persons pose for the family, community and society at large in the context of Southeast Asia. Most importantly, it shifts the focus from viewing older persons simply as liabilities to one that recognizes their value as an asset that can be enhanced through appropriate actions at each of these levels, especially ones that take into account the rapidly changing socio-economic and technological environment in which population ageing is taking place." - Professor John Knodel, Research Professor Emeritus, Population Studies Center and Professor Emeritus, Sociology, University of Michigan.

Most studies of ageing have been done by the non-aged. To correct this imbalance, Hazan enlisted the resources of an unusual and innovative group of elderly persons in Cambridge, England. Gathering together in a structured curriculum of seminars and discussion groups and calling themselves the University of the Third Age, the elders intellectually reexamine the spectrum of sociocultural and epistemological principles starting with basics. Hazan's careful observation, description and transcription of the words of the Third Agers demonstrates that cognition and discourse go through transformations and permutations as individuals attain the so-called wisdom years. Alone in the literature on ageing, Hazan's contribution lights the way for much new thinking and research on and among our older population.

Over the next 40 years the number of people aged 60 and over in the world is set to grow by one and a quarter billion. More than 80 per cent of these people will be living in developing regions, such as Asia, Africa and Latin America. What are the implications of this for the world and what will old age be like for these people? This original book provides a sophisticated analysis of links between development, population ageing and the experiences of older people. Drawing on a broad array of evidence, it challenges a number of widely held misconceptions and generalisations. The book highlights the diversity and complexity of international experiences and argues that the effects of population ageing on development are strongly influenced by policy choices. It argues that pension programmes in developing countries often promote inequality and clientelism, that health policies over-look basic provision and lifelong promotion, and that care needs continue to be neglected. It includes country case study chapters which analyse the experiences of India, South Africa and Argentina. The book will be of interest to people working in a wide range of academic disciplines, including economics, gerontology, social policy and development studies. It will also provide a key reference point for policy makers and practitioners concerned with developing countries.

This collection offers a fascinating comparative analysis of two very different approaches to social policy on ageing. By analyzing the different foundations and systems established by Beveridge in Britain and Bismarck in Germany this book provides a well-constructed and truly comparative perspective on a range of key issues. Each chapter is co-authored by a leading German and a British figure in the field allowing for a unique insight into the differing policies.

Significant improvements in lifestyle and medical science are leading to an ever increasing elderly population in the United States and other developed nations. The U.S census bureau estimates that the number of people over 65 will nearly double by 2030, and that the elderly will comprise nearly one-fifth of the world's entire population within the next 20 years. In Animal Models of Human Cognitive Aging, Jennifer Bizon, Alisa Woods, and a panel of international authorities comprehensively discuss the use of animal models as a tool for understanding cognitive changes associated with the aging process. The book provides substantive background on the newest and most widely used animal models in studies of cognition and aging, while detailing the normal and pathological processes of brain aging of humans in relation to those models. Additional chapters comprehensively review frontal cortical deficits and executive function in primates as related to humans, and the use of transgenic modulation in mice to model Alzheimer's and other age-related diseases. Groundbreaking and authoritative, Animal Models of Human Cognitive Aging provides a valuable resource for Neuroscientists, Gerontological Scientists and all aging medicine researchers, while serving as a primer for understanding current brain aging studies.

This book examines the migration of older persons to rural retirement destinations in the United States. While the majority of older persons are residentially stable, those who migrate are disproportionately likely to move to a rural community. Moreover, with the aging of the baby boom generation, particular rural communities can expect to continue attracting older in-migrants in the future. The book examines rural retirement migration from the older in-migrants' perspective and from the vantage point of the destination communities to which they move. This integrated micro-macro approach permits the authors to view older in-migrants as embedded in particular types of environments that facilitate and/or constrain their opportunities for productive living during older age. It also permits the examination of positive and negative effects of older in-migration for destination communities.

The ageing of the population has enormous implications for the provision of, and access to, health care. Christina Victor's important textbook provides comprehensive overview of the experiences of older people, chapters on physical health, mental health, disability and lifestyle, a thesis of current policy developments, the key debates on the future health of elders and an international, up-to-date perspective. Written by a leader in the field, the book covers key questions such as the fitness of future older people, the widening inequalities in their health and whether health in old age is related to habits and behaviour in earlier life.

How can we understand older people as real human beings, value their wisdom, and appreciate that their norms and principles both matter in themselves and are affected by those of others? Using a life-course approach, this book claims that the complexity and potential creativity of later life demands a humanistic vision of older people and ageing. This denies that older people are 'other' than ourselves, stressing 'ties of recognition and concern' which bind all human beings together.At the same time, it acknowledges the specificities of different experiences of older age and the diversity of meanings connected with them. It presents a range of contexts and methodologies through which such meanings can be understood. The book interprets ageing as a process of creating meaning, carried out by older people but significant for those around them, and influenced by the norms and values of their societies. It then considers the impact of social norms on older people's capacities to age in creative ways.What real obstacles are there to older people's construction of meaningful lives, what is going on when they feel they are ageing well? In former times, the idea of a meaningful later life was associated with the idea of wisdom; some of its contemporary dimensions are explored here. This collection offers a lively and creative response to contemporary challenges of ageing and how to understand it. It is aimed at students, researchers, practitioners and policy-makers interested in ageing.

This book examines the key aging processes in seven countries (United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, Japan, China, Nepal, and South Africa) and the main policies that have been, and are being, developed to deal with this rapid change in the demographic profile. It addresses the problems that are identified as well as the positive aspects of aging within each of these contrasting societies. Thus it makes a significant contribution to the major debates about growing old across the globe.

This insightful, research-driven book offers practical advice to older adults seeking new intimate relationships, lasting friendships, and better relationships with family members and children. Written to appeal to men as well as women, Mature Friendships, Love, and Romance: A Practical Guide to Intimacy for Older Adults is a serious book about love, romance, intimacy, and sexuality, as well as friendship and family. It is about what happens when older adults lack close relationships and about practical ways to address that isolation and loneliness. Through personal stories and vignettes, readers will see how notions of friendship, intimacy, and love change as we age, what mature love is, and what factors can make it challenging. Among the topics discussed are late-life divorces and breakups of long-term relationships; finding new and intimate friendships; resolving problems with adult children that can emerge when you enter a new, loving relationship; and choosing activities to increase your pool of potential friends and mates. Internet dating is addressed, as are the general thoughts and actions of happy people who agree life can start at 60. Presents powerful personal stories about mature love and intimacy Includes case studies of mature adults experiencing love and intimacy problems, offering explanations of the problems and effective and realistic solutions Discusses current research on love and intimacy problems of older adults

This in-depth description of life in a nursing/care home for 70 residents and 40 staff highlights the daily care of frail or ill residents between 80 and 100 years of age, including people suffering with dementia. How residents interact with care assistants is emphasised, as are the different behaviours of men and women observed during a year of daily conversations between the author, patients and staff, who share their stories of the pressures of the work. Living Before Dying shows a world where, in extreme old age, people have to learn how to cope with living communally.

This book brings together the newest and the most innovative scholarship on Nigerian children-one of the least researched groups in African colonial history. It engages the changing conceptions of childhood, relating it to the broader themes about modernity, power, agency, and social transformation under imperial rule.

In this new, revised edition of his landmark book, Montagu compels us to reevaluate the way we think about growth and development, in all its phases, throughout life. Humans are designed to grow and develop their childlike qualities, and not to become the ossified adults prescribed by society. Montagu demonstrates how our culture, schools, and families are in conspiracy against such childlike traits as the need to love, to learn, to wonder, to know, to explore, to think, to experiment, to be imaginative, creative and curious, to sing, dance, or play. He also reveals the many links between physical and mental aging and tells how to prevent psychosclerosis, the hardening of the mind, so that we can die young--as late as possible. The best statement ever written on the most important, neglected theme of human life and evolution. "Stephen Jay Gould, Harvard University"

In this new, revised edition of his landmark book, Montagu compels us to reevaluate the way we think about growth and development, in all its phases, throughout life. Humans are designed to grow and develop their childlike qualities, and not to become the ossified adults prescribed by society. Montagu demonstrates how our culture, schools, and families are in conspiracy against such childlike traits as the need to love, to learn, to wonder, to know, to explore, to think, to experiment, to be imaginative, creative and curious, to sing, dance, or play. He also reveals the many links between physical and mental aging and tells how to prevent psychosclerosis, the hardening of the mind, so that we can die young--as late as possible.