Policy makers and service providers are increasingly aware that housing and care services for older people need to be more flexible, innovative and inclusive. In Britain, purpose-built retirement villages similar to those that have existed in North America and Europe for some time are attracting increasing attention, reflecting both an awareness of the ageing of our population and a recognition that older people want a greater say in where and how they live, the design of their environments, and the kind of care and support that they might require in the future. This report explores what it is like to live and work in the new Berryhill Retirement Village in Stoke-on-Trent (developed by The ExtraCare Charitable Trust and Touchstone Housing Association), and shows that retirement housing does not have to be planned and developed solely with middle-class professionals in mind. Based on the experiences of residents, staff, families and other stakeholders, the report: identifies the factors that facilitate the development of a positive environment in which to age; asks why people moved into the Village and whether they felt that their lives had improved there; considers the full range of sources of support both inside and outside the Village; details some of the ways in which such environments can facilitate people in their efforts to overcome illness and poor health and enjoy a good quality of life; draws out wider policy and practice lessons for those who might be considering developing similar schemes. The report is essential reading for policy makers and practitioners in housing, health and social care, as well as academics interested in these fields.

Elders can struggle with issues of social isolation and self-esteem, and benefit from having positive coping skills at their disposal. The practical ideas Kathie Erwin imparts in this second edition help mental health professionals working with elderly populations to create an interactive, multi-modal program that addresses the issues and needs elders have. The group modalities are defined in holistic contexts of mind, body, society, and spirituality. Among the group modalities are reminiscence, bibliotherapy, remotivation, humor, expressive art, and therapeutic writing and sacred spaces, which are new to this edition. Mental health professionals appreciate the practical and detailed guidelines for how to design, implement, and monitor progress for various types of group modalities that allow them to put theory into practice easily. Their elder clients will benefit from the methods they develop in group to deal with problems such as isolation and reduced social networks.

Elders can struggle with issues of social isolation and self-esteem, and benefit from having positive coping skills at their disposal. The practical ideas Kathie Erwin imparts in this second edition help mental health professionals working with elderly populations to create an interactive, multi-modal program that addresses the issues and needs elders have. The group modalities are defined in holistic contexts of mind, body, society, and spirituality. Among the group modalities are reminiscence, bibliotherapy, remotivation, humor, expressive art, and therapeutic writing and sacred spaces, which are new to this edition. Mental health professionals appreciate the practical and detailed guidelines for how to design, implement, and monitor progress for various types of group modalities that allow them to put theory into practice easily. Their elder clients will benefit from the methods they develop in group to deal with problems such as isolation and reduced social networks.

In an era of changing demographics and values, this volume provides a cross-national and interdisciplinary perspective on the question of who cares for and about the elderly. The contributors reflect on research studies, experimental programmes and personal experience in Japan and the United States to explicitly compare how policies, practices and interpretations of elder care are evolving at the turn of the century.

Demographic and epidemiological changes mean that frail older people have come to be seen as an expensive problem for health care systems. The challenge for professionals and policy-makers is to find ways to respond to the coming crisis by delivering high-quality care in the home. This collection offers a critical analysis of home care policy and practice. It focuses on how high-quality care is provided and the practices and policies that support this. It offers case studies (both policy- and practice-oriented empirical studies) from countries that share a basic orientation to social welfare: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The nine chapters set out a critical agenda for the development of "good" practices in challenging times. This book is essential reading for students, practitioners and researchers who wish to understand diverse problems in care provision for frail older persons and the complexities of policy responses in different health and social care contexts.

The question of communication and understanding between different generations is emerging as a key issue for the twenty-first century. The advent of ageing populations may lead to increased conflict or solidarity in society, and provokes a profound ambivalence both in public and in the private sphere. In a new approach, Biggs and Lowenstein offer a critical examination of Generational Intelligence as one way of addressing these issues. How easy is it to put yourself in the shoes of someone of a different age group? What are the personal, interpersonal and social factors that affect our perceptions of the 'age other'? What are the key issues facing families, workplaces and communities in an ageing society? This book sets out a way of thinking about interpersonal relations based on age, and the question of communication between people of different ages and generations. The book challenges existing orthodoxies for relations between adults of different ages and draws out steps that can be taken to increase understanding between generational groups. The authors outline a series of steps that can be taken to enhance Generational Intelligence, examine existing theories and social issues, and suggest new directions for sustainable relations between generational groups.

'The best piece of nature writing since H is for Hawk, and the most powerful work of biography I have read in years' Neil Gaiman 'Wonderful - I can't recommend it too highly' Helen Macdonald 'One of those rare, enchanted books' Isabella Tree 'Beautiful - it made me cry' Simon Amstell 'I was entranced' Cathy Rentzenbrink This is a story about birds and fathers. About the young magpie that fell from its nest in a Bermondsey junkyard into Charlie Gilmour's life - and swiftly changed it. Demanding worms around the clock, riffling through his wallet, sharing his baths and roosting in his hair... About the jackdaw kept at a Cornish stately home by Heathcote Williams, anarchist, poet, magician, stealer of Christmas, and Charlie's biological father who vanished from his life in the dead of night. It is a story about repetition across generations and birds that run in the blood; about a terror of repeating the sins of the father and a desire to build a nest of one's own. It is a story about change - from wild to tame; from sanity to madness; from life to death to birth; from freedom to captivity and back again, via an insane asylum, a prison and a magpie's nest. And ultimately, it is the story of a love affair between a man and a magpie.

The question of communication and understanding between different generations is emerging as a key issue for the twenty-first century. The advent of ageing populations may lead to increased conflict or solidarity in society, and provokes a profound ambivalence both in public and in the private sphere. In a new approach, Biggs and Lowenstein offer a critical examination of Generational Intelligence as one way of addressing these issues. How easy is it to put yourself in the shoes of someone of a different age group? What are the personal, interpersonal and social factors that affect our perceptions of the 'age other'? What are the key issues facing families, workplaces and communities in an ageing society? This book sets out a way of thinking about interpersonal relations based on age, and the question of communication between people of different ages and generations. The book challenges existing orthodoxies for relations between adults of different ages and draws out steps that can be taken to increase understanding between generational groups. The authors outline a series of steps that can be taken to enhance Generational Intelligence, examine existing theories and social issues, and suggest new directions for sustainable relations between generational groups.

Portraying people who have lived and worked in long-term nursing home facilities, Elder Care Catastrophe reveals how organizational dynamics and everyday rituals have unintentionally led to resident neglect and abuse. Backed up by research and grounded in sociological theory, this book offers alternative models for lessening the maltreatment of people living in nursing homes. It provides critical information for family members struggling with nursing home issues, nursing home employees, policy-makers, students and researchers concerned with elder care issues.

A wide variety of care services for older people are offered in Germany. However, these services are characterised by a strong disintegration. The lack of efficient coordination and cooperation structures between different service providers makes it more difficult to organise comprehensive support and relief for family carers. This report provides an overview of the current situation and needs of family carers, the socio-political frame of family caring, the coverage and usage of social and health related care services as well as trends and perspectives regarding future provision of services.

The world is growing older and this is a historically unprecedented phenomenon. Negotiating such change, personally, socially and for governments and international organisations requires an act of cultural adaptation. Two key questions arise: What is the purpose of a long life? and How do we adapt to societies where generations are of approximately the same size? A number of pre-existing narratives can be identified; however, it is argued that contemporary policies have produced a premature answer which may eclipse the potential arising from lifecourse change. In this book Simon Biggs discusses ways of interrogating these questions and the adaptations we make to them. Four major areas, all of which have been suggested as solutions to population ageing, are critically assessed, including work as an answer, the relationship between work, ageing and health, narratives of spirit, belief and wisdom, the body and the natural, anti-ageing medicine, critical approaches to dementia, plus family and intergenerational relations. This book is particiularly useful for those trying to make sense of population ageing and negotiate solutions. It describes a number of concepts that can be used to assess what we are told about a long life and how generations can adapt together. With the cultural landscape moving away from traditional interpretations of old age, the question of adult ageing is of growing interest to a number of groups. This book is essential reading for social and health-care workers, other helping professionals, policy makers, social scientists and all who encounter the prospect of a long life.

Health policy emphasises the role of primary and community-based services in achieving strategic change throughout the NHS. However, despite lead roles assigned to social service departments and residential and nursing home care services, difficulties remain in achieving closer working relationships. This book is a concise guide to the new initiatives in this area, including models and practical examples. It covers the recent developments encouraging partnerships between health and social care services, and is essential reading for all those involved in primary care and the social services, especially those with an interest in the care of older people. The National Primary Care Research and Development Centre series provides policy makers, commissioners, managers, primary care professionals and user organisations with up-to-date multi-disciplinary research on important issues that inform future decision-making for primary care development.

The Living Well with Dementia Course: A Workbook for Facilitators will be an indispensable guide to providing support to people after they have received a dementia diagnosis. The workbook provides facilitators with a realistic but positive approach to helping people with dementia understand and adjust to their condition, helping them to live as well as possible. This workbook outlines the Living Well with Dementia course, a post-diagnostic course for people who have recently received a diagnosis of dementia. Its session-by-session structure, along with e-resources including handouts for course participants, will help facilitators provide a realistic but positive approach to support after a diagnosis. Aimed at facilitators, and drawing on the authors' many years of clinical and research experience, The Living Well with Dementia Course workbook will be of great assistance to healthcare professionals and support workers in many different settings, including specialist NHS dementia services, primary care services and the voluntary and community sector.

Housing, Care and Inheritance draws on the author's long-standing research into housing issues surrounding the ageing society, a phenomenon which is now a concern in many mature economies. If an adult child provides care for their elderly parent, should that person be rewarded? If so, should they inherit their parent's house or a larger share of the assets? The 'generational contract' is often influenced by cultural norms, family traditions, social policy and housing market, so it is negotiated differently in different societies and at different times. Such generational contract is however breaking down as a result of socio-economic and demographic changes. Drawn from the two-part study funded by the UK Economic & Social Research Council, Misa Izuhara explores the myth and the changing patterns of the particular exchange of long-term care and housing assets between older parents and their adult children in Britain and Japan. Highly international and comparative in perspectives, this study addresses important sociological as well as policy questions regarding intergenerational relations involving housing wealth, long-term care, and inheritance.

This guide to Adaptive Interaction explains how to assess the communication repertoires of people with dementia who can no longer speak, and offers practical interventions for those who wish to interact with them. Outlining the challenges faced by people living with advanced dementia, this book shows how to relieve the strain on relationships between them, their families, and professional caregivers through better, person-centred communication. It includes communication assessment tools and guidance on how to build on the communication repertoire of the individual with dementia using nonverbal means including imitation, facial expressions, sounds, movement, eye gaze and touch. With accessible evidence and case studies based on the authors' research, Adaptive Interaction can be used as the basis for developing interactions without words with people living with dementia.

Public discussion of population aging usually focuses on the financial burden that increasingly elderly populations will impose on younger generations. Scholars give much less attention to who does the actual work of day-to-day care for those no longer able to care for themselves; and although women are the majority among the elderly, little is heard about gender differences in economic resources or the need for care. This volume is dedicated to giving gender - and a full range of social and cultural differences - their rightful place in these discussions. The authors address, amongst other issues: the worldwide dilemmas of eldercare the structure of income and care provisions for older populations the role of family, marital status, and class in these provisions the impact of polices affecting retirement age the role of social insurance in preventing poverty among elderly women. The essays included address these topics in a myriad of geographical contexts, including South Africa, the US, Palestine, Australia, South Korea, Spain, Germany, and Sweden. The concerns highlighted here also remind us that whether through individual families or social insurance, through family caregivers or paid help, the oldest generation will continue to depend on adults of working age for its well-being. This book was previously published as a special issue of Feminist Economics.

Public discussion of population aging usually focuses on the financial burden that increasingly elderly populations will impose on younger generations. Scholars give much less attention to who does the actual work of day-to-day care for those no longer able to care for themselves; and although women are the majority among the elderly, little is heard about gender differences in economic resources or the need for care. This volume is dedicated to giving gender -and a full range of social and cultural differences-their rightful place in these discussions. The authors in the following pages address, among other issues:
* the worldwide dilemmas of eldercare
* the structure of income and care provisions for older populations
* the role of family, marital status, and class in these provisions
* the impact of polices affecting retirement age
* and the role of social insurance in preventing poverty among elderly women
The essays included address these topics in a myriad of geographical contexts, including South Africa, the US, Palestine, Australia, South Korea, Spain, Germany, and Sweden. The concerns highlighted here also remind us that whether through individual families or social insurance, through family caregivers or paid help, the oldest generation will continue to depend on adults of working age for its well-being. This book was previously published as a special issue of Feminist Economics.

Giving voice to the lived experiences of people with dementia across the globe, including Australia, Canada, Sweden and the UK, this critical and evidence-based collection engages with the realities of life for people living with dementia at home and within their neighbourhoods. This insightful text addresses the fundamental social aspects of environment, including place attachment, belonging and connectivity. The chapters reveal the potential and expose the challenges for practitioners and researchers as dementia care shifts to a neighbourhood setting. The unique 'neighbourhood-centred' perspective provides an innovative guide for policy and practice and calls for a new place-based culture of care and support in the neighbourhood.

In this insightful collection, academic experts consider the impact of neoliberal policies and ideology on the status of care work in Nordic countries. With new research perspectives and empirical analyses, it assesses challenges for care work including technologies, management and policy-making. Arguing that there is a care crisis even in the supposedly feminist Nordic 'nirvana', this book explores understandings of the care crisis, the serious consequences for gender equality and the hitherto neglected effects on the long-term sustainability of the Nordic welfare states. This astute take on the Nordic welfare model provides insights into what the Nordic experience can tell us about wider international issues in care.

This book was nurtured by the belief that the new dynamics of today's and tomorrow's aging has not yet been treated well in the gerontology literature. Several questions drove the choice of substance for the book: What kind of new dynamics of aging deserves consideration? What kinds of theories and fields are at the core of treating such a new dynamics? And what kind of empirical evidence should be considered? The master hypothesis on which the book is based maintains that the new dynamics of old age is best observed in a range of everyday aging contexts that have been undergoing major change since the second half of the 20th century. In particular, five areas of new and persistent dynamics are treated in depth: the social environment, with a focus on cohort effects in social relations and the consideration of family relations and elders as care redelivers; the home environment, with emphasis on housing and quality of life, relocation and urban aging issues; the outdoor environment, with consideration of out-of-home activity patterns, car-driving behaviour and the leisure world of aging; the technological environment, with treatments of the role of the Internet and the potential of technology for aging outcomes and; and the societal environment with a focus on global aging, the new politics of old age and older persons as market consumers. The book's main purpose is to provide the scholarly gerontology community with a comprehensive and critical discussion of these new trends related to old age. The book will be of interest for the scholarly community of gerontology in a variety of disciplines; sociology, psychology, demography, epidemiology, humanities, social policy and geriatrics; students in gerontology education and in the disciplines named above who have an interest in aging issues (graduate level); professionals in practical and applied fields related to aging such as community and urban planners, health and care providers and policymakers; people involved in senior citizens' organizations and those in industry who wish to serve older people with new products.

Many books address the issue of caring for one's aging parents, but this will be the first book to consider the topic from the parents' perspective. Cheryl A. Kuba proposes an entirely unique approach to this aspect of gerontology: expressing the voices of care-receivers themselves. The dependent elderly are a wealth of information, Kuba discovers, and if we listen to them, we will be better able to help them. The 22.4 million elderly people being cared for in the United States comprise the fastest growing segment of the population, making the discovery of new approaches to care-giving more important than ever. This book draws on numerous interviews with aging people, and will discuss common care-giver mistakes and misinterpretations, what a care-giver should expect when an aging parent moves in, and how to care for an aging parent from afar. The book includes helpful resources for those caring for an aging parent in a variety of situations. Kuba explains such phenomena as guilt, role reversal, changing family dynamics, financial stress, and caring for oneself while caring for another. She also addresses the gendering of care-giving and the myth that Americans abandon the elderly.

The global phenomenon of the aging of societies during a period of outstanding scientific, economic, and technological advancements is a blessing for humanity. These fundamental changes, however, create new needs and problems in all areas of life, often difficult to address. In some countries, the trend is towards compression of the period of age-related morbidity - fewer years of living with disabilities - but the absolute numbers of elderly people living with disabilities are increasing worldwide. This book highlights a series of global threats, problems and challenges in the areas of care and caregiving, through the prism of three multicultural nations: the United States, Israel and Australia. The contributors to this book, experts in their fields, focus on the art of caregiving at the national level, including the interface between family and state responsibilities, policies and practices in the provision of services, and the demands for education and training, as well as the problems and difficulties faced by family caregivers. This is the second of two edited volumes on aging and caregiving. The first, ""Lessons on Aging from Three Nations - Volume I: The Art of Aging Well"", examines positive aspects of and successful adaptations to aging. This book will be of interest to students of gerontology and geriatrics; those working in nongovernmental organizations - private, for-profit and non-profit agencies, including voluntary charitable and religious groups, those working in national regional and local governments, and all general readers intrigued with the aging of societies and longevity.