First published in 1997. Considerable research has been done to identify neighbourhood influences on children's affective states, motivation, and behaviour. This population, along with the elderly, are the nation's largest dependent groups. In contrast, little research has been done to determine what impact living among poor neighbours has upon older Americans, specifically upon their psychological well-being and neighbourhood satisfaction. In this study the author has sought out to explore this deficit, using a sociological standpoint to examine quality-of-life issues relevant to elderly inner-city residents. This title will be of interest to students of sociology and urban studies.

This book examines narratives of dementia in contemporary literary texts, studying what is now a pressing issue with deep political, economic, and social implications for many ageing societies. As part of the increasing visibility of dementia in social and cultural life, these narratives pose ethical, aesthetic, and political questions about subjectivity, agency, and care that help us to interrogate the cultural discourse of dementia. Contemporary Narratives of Dementia is a seminal book that offers a sustained examination of a wide range of literary narratives, from auto/biographies and detective fiction, to children's books and comic books. With its wide-reaching theoretical and critical scope, its comparative dimension, and its inclusion of multiple genres, this book is important for scholars engaging with studies of dementia and ageing in diverse disciplines. Sarah Falcus is a Reader in Contemporary Literature at the University of Huddersfield, UK. She has research interests in contemporary women's writing, feminism and literary gerontology. She is the co-director of the Dementia and Cultural Narrative (DCN) network. Katsura Sako is an Associate Professor of English, at Keio University, Japan. Her main field of research is in post-war/contemporary British literature, and she has particular interests in gender, ageing and illness. She is a member of the steering committee of the DCN network.

The Aging Self and the Aging Society Ethical issues involving the elderly have recently come to the fore. This should come as no surprise: Since the turn of the century, there has been an eightfold in crease in the number of Americans over the age of sixty five, and almost a tripling of their proportion to the general population. Those over the age of eighty-five- the fastest growing group in the country-are twenty one more times as numerous as in 1900. Demographers expect this trend to accelerate into the twenty-first century. The aging of society casts into vivid relief a num ber of deep and troubling questions. On the one hand, as individuals, we grapple with the immediate experience of aging and mortality and seek to find in it philosophical or ethical significance. We also wonder what responsi bilities we bear toward aging family members and what expectations of others our plans for old age can reasona bly include. On the other hand, as a community, we must decide: What special role, if any, do older persons occupy in our society? What constitutes a just distribution of medical resources between generations? And, How can institutions that serve the old foster imperiled values, such as autonomy, self-respect, and dignity? Only recently have we begun to explore these themes, yet already a rich and fruitful literature has grown up around them."

Margaret Cruikshank's Learning to Be Old examines what it means to grow old in America today. The book questions social myths and fears about aging, sickness, and the other social roles of the elderly, the over-medicalization of many older people, and ageism. In this book, Cruikshank proposes alternatives to the ways aging is usually understood in both popular culture and mainstream gerontology. Learning to Be Old does not propose the ideas of "successful aging" or "productive aging," but more the idea of "learning" how to age. Featuring new research and analysis, the third edition of Learning to be Old demonstrates, more thoroughly than the previous editions, that aging is socially constructed. Among texts on aging the book is unique in its clear focus on the differences in aging for women and men, as well as for people in different socioeconomic groups. Cruikshank is able to put aging in a broad context that not only focuses on how aging affects women but men, as well. Key updates in the third edition include changes in the health care system, changes in how long older Americans are working especially given the impact of the recession, and new material on the brain and mind-body interconnections. Cruikshank impressively challenges conventional ideas about aging in this third edition of Learning to be Old. This will be a must-read for everyone interested in new ideas surrounding aging in America today.

The empirical and theoretical analysis of executive control processes, dormant for many years, has grown to become one of the most fertile areas of research in cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Because executive functions are thought to have a pervasive role in maintaining optimal information processing across many processing situations, issues related to executive control cut across many traditional research divides. Unique among many other areas of research in cognition, questions about the influence of ageing have figured prominently in executive control research. There is accumulating evidence of age-related changes in frontal/executive functions. The union of research on executive functioning with research on the cognitive effects of ageing could provide the theoretical framework for understanding the widespread influence of ageing on cognition. This special issue brings together well-known researchers in cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience who approach the question of executive control using a wide range of methods from traditional behavioural studies, quantitative and computational modelling, and functional neuroimaging. The emphasis of these contributions is on a concise overview and integration of relevant theoretical ideas and empirical findings. By bringing together a diverse group of contributors, this special issue can serve researchers and students both as a summary of current research and as a starting point toward further explorations on the relations between executive control and the cognitive influences of ageing.

Still the definitive book on the subject, this volume has been thoroughly revised to cover rapidly changing aspects of the economics of aging. It provides an in-depth examination of the nation's evolving private and public policies on retirement, pension, and health, including, for instance, the dramatic changes in employer-sponsored pensions. New attention is given to the retirement of baby boomers and the financial situation of older women, many of whom still live in poverty. Other topics added to this edition include the proposed new way of measuring poverty, new economic implications of demographic aging, the concept of productive aging', an update on reverse annuity mortgages, hybrid pension plans and pension privatization, and current information on Social Security. This highly readable book is essential for everyone concerned with gerontology. A thorough, rich, and current work, this book is the most comprehensive resource available for students, policymakers, researchers, human resource directors, and in short, all who have a personal or professional interest in the essential questions facing the growing aging population in the United States. It examines changes in retirement patterns, problems of older workers, and the complexity of retirement preparation, as well as pension plan health costs and all the programs affecting financial security.

With a rapidly aging population throughout the world, the issue of larger percentages of older adults has repercussions for both policy and the job market. Whether a university student about to seek a full-time job or a caregiver for an older person, Aging in the Family should enhance the reader's knowledge and skills. The main topics covered in this volume include marital status of older adults, support systems within families, crises with older adults within families, the resilience of older adults entering the latter stages of life, practical information involving caregiving, aging in place, and various social services for an aging population. The reader will be made aware of intergenerational interactions between older adults and other family members in various cultures. The role of ethnicity and socio-economic status in health issues of older adults will be discussed, as will the application of technology to an aging population. Though problems certainly exist as one ages, the overall thrust of the book is toward the positive aspects of growing old. Numerous theories exist to probe research and understanding of older adults in families. The relation between theory and research will be helpful to many students of aging in the family. Older adults are generally married, yet cohabitation and other options are alive and well too. Ageism, death, and abuse, unfortunately, are issues affecting aging. Yet, most older adults in the US and Western Europe report living independently and being satisfied with their lives. Aging in the Family will be an interesting read for anyone wanting to learn about older adults and family relationships, as it exhibits a blend of both theoretical and practical matters.

With a rapidly aging population throughout the world, the issue of larger percentages of older adults has repercussions for both policy and the job market. Whether a university student about to seek a full-time job or a caregiver for an older person, Aging in the Family should enhance the reader's knowledge and skills. The main topics covered in this volume include marital status of older adults, support systems within families, crises with older adults within families, the resilience of older adults entering the latter stages of life, practical information involving caregiving, aging in place, and various social services for an aging population. The reader will be made aware of intergenerational interactions between older adults and other family members in various cultures. The role of ethnicity and socio-economic status in health issues of older adults will be discussed, as will the application of technology to an aging population. Though problems certainly exist as one ages, the overall thrust of the book is toward the positive aspects of growing old. Numerous theories exist to probe research and understanding of older adults in families. The relation between theory and research will be helpful to many students of aging in the family. Older adults are generally married, yet cohabitation and other options are alive and well too. Ageism, death, and abuse, unfortunately, are issues affecting aging. Yet, most older adults in the US and Western Europe report living independently and being satisfied with their lives. Aging in the Family will be an interesting read for anyone wanting to learn about older adults and family relationships, as it exhibits a blend of both theoretical and practical matters.

In all cognitive domains, neuropsychological research has advanced through the study of individual patients, and detailed observations and descriptions of their cases have been the backbone of medical and scientific reports for centuries. Cases of Amnesia describes some of the most important single case studies in the history of memory, as well as new case studies of amnesic patients. It highlights the major contribution they make to our understanding of human memory and neuropsychology. Written by world-leading researchers and considering the latest theory and techniques in the field, each case study provides a description of the patient's history, how their memory was assessed and what conclusions can be made in relation to cognitive models of memory. Edited by Sarah E. MacPherson and Sergio Della Sala, Cases of Amnesia is a must read for researchers and clinicians in neuropsychology, cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience.

Retirement is a comma in our lives, not a full stop. Life After Work looks at the psychological, emotional and wellbeing issues that surround this complex and important transition in life. This book suggests that retirement is a life stage over which we may have greater control than previously thought; it no longer has to be the case that retirement is a terminal point, a time where you became sedentary and inactive. Retirement is on one level a private, individual matter that affects one's sense of self and purpose, physical and mental processes, as well as financial security or provision. On another level, retirement has an impact on relationships with loved ones, family and friends, as well as colleagues. It can strengthen or disrupt bonds, leading to new bonds being formed or to withdrawal. This book is written by successful authors and psychologists Robert Bor, Carina Eriksen and Lizzie Quarterman, each with many years' experience of helping people cope with life stage changes and prepare for retirement. It contains illustrative case studies throughout, from which valuable lessons can be learned, and draws on the very latest psychological research and techniques to provide a blueprint for planning and living a wonderful retirement or life post-work. Planning for your future is crucial in enabling you to maximise the opportunities available. Following the book's blueprint will help you prepare for this phase in your life, and the sooner you start the better. Life After Work will be of great interest to readers of all ages seeking guidance on retirement and will also appeal to psychologists of life stage changes.

The workforce across industrialized nations has become both older and more age-diverse, and this trend is expected to continue in the coming decades. These changes will have important implications for motivating and managing both individual employees and teams and because people are retiring later, it is important to address ways to sustain the wellbeing and productivity of workers. With a specifically international focus, this volume addresses these critical issues from the individual and psychological perspectives. Based primarily in empirical research, it covers a wide range of topics related to the aging workforce, including the motivation of older workers - to work and to retire; what organizations can do to attract and retain the talent of older workers; how to improve relations and productivity among age-diverse teams; how to design jobs to support older and younger talent; and how to better understand why older workers may choose to return to work. This volume includes contributions from the top I/O researchers in the field of the aging workforce. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology.

Care-giving in dementia is a new speciality with its own rapidly growing body of knowledge. This second volume of contributions from leading practitioners and researchers around the world is a handbook for all those involved in hands on caring, or in planning care, for persons with dementia. Volume 2 of Care-Giving in Dementia provides a rich source of information on most recent thinking about individualised long-term care of both dementia sufferers and their families. Key themes in Volume 2 are: the subjective experience of dementia the provision of care for family carers differing cultural perspectives of dementia the crucial importance of life-history information for understanding a person's reaction to their illness. Chapters on the search for an ethical framework and the best environment within which to provide care are particularly timely.

Prior to publication, it had only recently been appreciated that psychology had a great deal to offer in therapeutic terms to a wide range of patients, and was not merely concerned with assessing and identifying problems. This is particularly so with the elderly where physical and mental problems and multiple pathology are compounded, and where psychological aspects of the quality of life are so important. The focus of this book, originally published in 1986, is on therapeutic approaches and the effective implementation of services. While the book is aimed particularly at clinical psychologists, it will also be of great interest to medical, nursing or occupational therapy staff working with elderly people.

As the leading edge of the 'Baby Boom' generation attains age 60, members of this unusually large cohort born 1946-66 are poised to redefine retirement - just as they have restructured educational, housing, and labor markets in prior days. Looking ahead, their numbers and energy are sure to have a major impact on national pensions, healthcare, and social safety nets. Contributors to this volume note that 'Boomers' will be better off than their predecessors in many ways, having benefited from the long run-up in housing prices, dramatic improvements in healthcare, and the expanding economy. On the other hand, the generation's sheer size will surely squeeze resources and require new approaches to retirement risk management. This volume paints a complex and fascinating picture as Boomers move into retirement. On average they are in better financial and physical health than prior cohorts, and they can be anticipated to fare better than current retirees in absolute terms. Yet the distribution of retiree income and wealth will be less equal than in earlier years, and in relative terms, many Boomers will be less well off than their forebears. Contributors to the volume use many invaluable models and datasets, including the incomparable Health and Retirement Study (HRS) which affords unique insights into the status of mature adults surveyed at the same age and hence same point in their life cycles, but at three different time periods. Analysts offer new evidence about prospects for health and income during retirement, as well as pensions and housing equity, health, portfolio allocation, and financial literacy. This book offers readers an invaluable and first book-length study of Boomers as they march into retirement. As such, it represents an invaluable addition to the Pension Research Council/Oxford University Press series. It will be especially useful for scholars and policymakers seeking to understand retirement preparedness, to actuaries and tax specialists concerned with retirement system regulation, and to plan sponsors interested in the determinants of work and retirement at older ages.

This book introduces the concept of the "Person One Could Have Become" and shows the importance of mourning for individuals with traumatic experiences. The Person One Could Have Become is conceptualized as personality and physical characteristics that could have emerged if an individual, at the right time, had received or opted for an appropriate quantity and quality of stimuli and experiences, which in turn would have enabled the person to make more mature and independent choices. Consequences of potentially traumatic events bear non-linear, meta-folding, and multicontextual meaning unique to each being-in-the-world. Many people with a history of trauma tend to mystify their existence in order to survive. This book contains an overview of the ramifications of abuse and neglect on personality, as well as the consequences of pregnancy loss and the specific loss of possibility and its co-occurrence with abuse and neglect. It looks at examples from daily life and two cases of traumatized individuals who differ in their background and experience of trauma, as well as in their struggles during psychotherapy. This book is not intended as a treatment manual, nor does it advocate for any particular therapeutic approach. It is, rather, an encouragement of a way of living. Indeed, a reasonable mourning of the Person One Could Have Become may set the individual free-also such with the history of trauma-for the road beyond the traditional psychotherapy outcome, the road toward authenticity.

First published in 1985. Information technology can offer huge benefits to the disabled. It can help many disabled people to overcome barriers of time and space and to a much greater extent it can help them to overcome barriers of communication. In that way new information technology offers opportunities to neutralise the worst effects of many kinds of disablement. This book reviews the possibilities of using information technology in the education of the disabled. Commencing with an assessment of the learning problems faced by disabled people, it goes on to look at the scope of information technology and how it has been used for the education of students of all ages, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. A penultimate section considers most of the contentious issues that faced users of technology, whilst the conclusion devotes itself to the immediate and longer-term future, suggesting possible future trends and the consequent problems that may arise.

Aging and Work in the 21st Century, 2nd edition, reviews, summarizes, and integrates existing literature from various disciplines with regard to aging and work, but with a focus on recent advances in the field. Chapter authors, all leading experts within their respective areas, provide recommendations for future research, practice, and/or public policy. Fully revised and updated, the second edition takes up many of the same critical topics addressed in the first edition, and incorporates twelve new authors across the volume and three brand new chapters on recruitment and retention, legal issues, and global issues in work and aging. The intended audience is advanced undergraduate and graduate students, as well as researchers in the disciplines of industrial and organizational psychology; developmental psychology; gerontology; sociology; economics; and social work. Older worker advocate organizations, such as AARP, will also take interest in this edited book.

Are you a young person? Middle-aged? Old? It doesn't really matter. Each of us grows older every second. Most of us age without taking charge of our life course, without a plan for our ageing. Each dip into these short chapters offers some operating instructions for life, a guide to engaging passionately with age.Dealing with a plethora of subjects, such as health, happiness, loneliness, dementia, sex, gender, marriage, abuse, respect, wage, wealth, class, and care, the book touches on how ageing affects us as individuals and as a society. Through this, myths and misconceptions on ageing are explored, urging us to rethink attitudes and policies on ageing and ageing populations.

Are you a young person? Middle-aged? Old? It doesn't really matter. Each of us grows older every second. Most of us age without taking charge of our life course, without a plan for our ageing. Each dip into these short chapters offers some operating instructions for life, a guide to engaging passionately with age.Dealing with a plethora of subjects, such as health, happiness, loneliness, dementia, sex, gender, marriage, abuse, respect, wage, wealth, class, and care, the book touches on how ageing affects us as individuals and as a society. Through this, myths and misconceptions on ageing are explored, urging us to rethink attitudes and policies on ageing and ageing populations.

In 1970, the best-seller Our Bodies Ourselves was published. The focus of the authors, the Boston Health Collective, was on the youthful female body: on reproduction, sexuality, genitalia, intimacy and relationships in the context of North American cultural expectations. Our Bodies Not Ourselves is also about the female body-but on women aging from menopause to 100. Like its predecessor, Our Bodies Not Ourselves covers sexuality, genitalia, intimacy, gender norms and relationships. But the aging woman's body has many other issues, from head to toe, from skeleton to skin, and from sleep to motion. The book, an ethnography and Western cultural history of aging and gender, draws upon history, culture and social media, the authors' own experiences as women of 70, and conversations and correspondence with more than two hundred women aged from 60-ish to 100. They consider the cultural and structural frameworks for contemporary aging: the long sweep of history, gendered cultural norms and the vast commercial and medical marketplaces for maintaining and altering the aging body. Part I, The Private Body, focuses on the embodied experiences of aging within our private households. Part II, The Public Body, explores weight, height, and adornment as old women appear among others. Part III, The Body With Others, sets the embodied experiences of aging women within their sexual and social relationships.

"Key Demographics in Retirement Risk Management" argues that the weakening of public and employer-sponsored social safety nets in several countries will permanently increase pre-retirees' risk-anxiety and create pressure towards readjustment of their expectations about the quality of their lives in retirement. The result will be to raise the priority of achieving effective comprehensive retirement related risk management. This achievement requires an emphasis upon the cascading of linked risks, and careful attention to the optimization of scarce resources used to manage those linked risks. Professional financial and retirement planning advisors comprise a key source of help. This book develops new knowledge concerning the factors that help to explain three important aspects of access to these professional advisors. The results of this analysis are used to illustrate the process of identifying distinctive population segments, key demographics, on the basis of multiple population attributes treated simultaneously. The illustration is further extended with an identification of distinctive population segments relative to performance on a composite indicator of the conduct of multiple retirement risk management activities. The book also discusses implications of the pattern of gender differences in preparedness to address retirement's challenges, highlighting subgroups of women in which inadequate preparedness is pronounced. "

What does it mean to age well? This important new book redefines what 'successful' ageing means, challenging the idea that physical health is the only criteria to gauge the ageing process and that an ageing population is necessarily a burden upon society. Using Sen's Capability Approach as a theoretical starting point Healthy Ageing: A Capability Approach to Inclusive Policy and Practice outlines a nuanced perspective that transcends the purely biomedical view, recognising ideas of resilience, as well as the experiences of older people themselves in determining what it means to age well. It builds to provide a comprehensive response to the overarching discourse that successful ageing is simply about eating well and exercising, acknowledging not only that older people are not always able to follow such advice, but also that well-being is mediated by factors beyond the physical. In an era where ageing has become such an important topic for policy makers, this is a robust and timely response that examines what it means to live well as an older person. It will be hugely valuable not only for students of gerontology and social care, but also professionals working in the field.

This book provides readers with a compelling case for the inclusion of contextual therapy in comprehensive healthcare settings by presenting its applications to individual and family health across the lifespan. Part I gives an overview of contextual therapy, including case conceptualization, assessment, intervention, and supervision. Part II provides specific recommendations for incorporating contextual therapy in diverse and multidisciplinary settings. Case studies illustrate how concepts such as justice, loyalty, and balanced giving and receiving influence families' adjustment to chronic illnesses and mental health disorders. Accounting for the trend toward increased collaboration between providers in traditional mental health and medical settings, this book will empower clinicians to expand their current range of assessment methods, intervention techniques, and supervision experiences

Offers proven strategies for advancing the care of the homeless elderly. Filled with key insights and field-tested knowledge, this is a concise, hands-on guide to how interdisciplinary team strategies can advance the care of older homeless adults. The book encompasses research evidence, education-based initiatives, and systems thinking, and describes how to implement promising health care outlooks for diverse elderly populations in a variety of localities. Chapters address the many challenges to caring for homeless individuals by integrating a team vision for adopting transformation and geriatrics health care workforce education. The book provides an overview of population demographics and trends and discusses specific medical/psychological care challenges including the spread of infectious diseases. It covers the delivery of care to homeless patients, complex ethical and legal issues, housing, social economics, family disruption and abuse, end-of-life considerations, and political and policy challenges. With abundant case studies and discussions about successes and failures in homeless geriatric health care, the book provides a framework for the joint efforts of social worker, nurse, mental health professional, physician, and other health care professionals to provide optimal care for older homeless populations. Key Features: Presents the most current resources, evidence, and developments for interdisciplinary care of older homeless populations Written by an interprofessional health care workforce with abundant clinical and academic experience in the field Focuses on implementing, developing, and adopting health care strategies to provide for care of the frail homeless elderly Includes case studies and discussions of successes and failures Addresses challenges, barriers, resolutions, and opportunities for homeless geriatric care

Over the past few decades, there has been a sharp increase in the number of elderly prisoners, and hence a rise in the number of prisoners dying in custody. In this book, Khechumyan questions whether respect for human dignity would justify releasing older and seriously ill prisoners. He also examines the normative justifications which could limit the administration of the imprisonment of the elderly and seriously ill. Khechumyan argues that factors such as a prisoner's age and health could alter the balance between the legitimate goals of punishment, rendering the continued imprisonment 'grossly disproportionate'. To address these issues, Articles 3 and 5 of the European Convention of Human Rights are extensively examined. This book is a valuable resource for academics, researchers and policy-makers working in the fields of Criminal Justice, Human Rights Law, and Gerontology.