It's terrible to get old? Life is all downhill after fifty? That's what our youth-centered culture may think but don't be duped. Selected as a finalist for 2006 Independent Publisher Book Awards, this book can change how you think about aging, even make you feel good about getting old! ". . . a liberating change is happening, a change as momentous as the liberation movements of the 1960s and 70s. It brings respect for older people, appreciation for maturity, and the promise of a more balanced culture."-from the Introduction by Margaret Karmazin and Janet Amalia Weinberg. Discover a new, positive way of looking at aging with Still Going Strong: Memoirs, Stories, and Poems About Great Older Women. This exuberant, inspiring anthology celebrates the vitality of older women and shows them having adventures, facing loss, enjoying romance, and feeling more capable and confident than ever. The 42 authors included in the collection know that life after middle age is not the diminished state dreaded by our youth-centered culture, but rather, a time of growth and fulfillment, enriched by the wisdom of experience and perspective. Get a taste of the passion, wit, and wisdom of some of these women: From "Why Vermont" by Elayne Clift: "It was great not to be driven by achievement. I was learning the art of laid-back living. Spending a day writing, or reading, was heavenly and I was reminded of my freedom whenever a friend said, 'I'd give anything to be doing that!'" From "Gray Matters" by Marsha Dubrow: ". . . finally [I] have decided to enjoy being a gray. It links me with a powerful sisterhood, complimenting each other on our gray badge of courage. A woman with dreadlocks resembling pillars of salt approached me on the street and said, 'You go, girlfriend. We're gray and we're proud-and gorgeous.' We smacked high fives." From "Katherine Banning: Wife, Mother, Bank Robber" by Melissa Lugo: "Crazy, you say? Well, wait till you hit 90 and realize you still want to live, that even though you're way past menopause you want another child, and that even though your breasts make tracks in the mud, you still want a lover, and that even though your hands shake, there are still things that you didn't get to do (like going to the Olympics and bringing home the gold) things you want to do, that you will do. Then, see what you're capable of. And you'll be perfectly sane. Senility, temporary insanity, it's all bull. Old folks know exactly what they're doing. One of the good parts about being an old fart is that you have a license to be loony tunes, to live the wild way you didn't have the balls for before. At 90, you see, your dignity's gone the way of dirty diapers, and your life is heading the same way fast. You have nothing to lose except the moment." From "A Different Woman" by Joan Kip: "My relationship with Seth is, I tell him, my great experiment. He calls me on every one of my tightly-held protections, and his pleasure in meeting my body is matched by my own freedom to respond. Ours is a relationship with no hidden agenda, no commitments. Our occasional evenings of uncomplicated delight are the intertwining of two desires who touch down and embrace one another, knowing they will meet again, sometime, somewhere. And while sex is not absent from our meetings, it is, rather, my compelling ache to be touched and held and to touch and hold that pulls me back each time to Seth. Like the newly-born whose being depends upon the enfolding presence of a parent, those of us who are now so old, glow more warmly when we, too, may share our tenderness." Still Going Strong counters demeaning stereotypes of "little old ladies" by offering positive, empowering views of women over fifty. It is a hopeful voice that speaks to any woman facing her own future.

The baby boomer generation is heading toward their retirement years, and uses of mass media - as well as the images portrayed in these media - are already being influenced by this demographic shift. This book comprehensively examines the linkage between media and aging issues, addressing mass media theory and practice as it relates to older people. Mass Media, an Aging Population and the Baby Boomers explains why aging baby boomers are an important area of mass media study, and reviews theory and research on communication and gerontology. Authors Jeremy Lipschultz and Michael Hilt focus on print media because older readers remain the most important audience for this media. They also examine television - one replacement for interpersonal communication - and consider the topic of entertainment, since older people generally have more available free time and use media for entertainment. They explore the impact of aging on advertising and public relations, and extend baby boomer media use to the Internet and new media. of aging, and presents a view of older people as important players in the political process because of the size of the demographic group. Lipschultz and Hilt also address trends and predictions related to baby boomers and mass media. This text is intended for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in communication, gerontology, sociology, and political science. It may be used as a primary or supplementary reading, and can be combined with a more general theory book.

This book promotes an understanding of ageism, discrimination and mistreatment of older adult workers, incorporating an international human rights perspective. The impact of ageism on the mistreatment of older adult workers has not to date been examined in depth through the lens of international human rights instruments, nor has discrimination against older adults in the workplace been framed as a form of elder abuse for research and policy making purposes. This book presents a multi-disciplinary exploration of these themes as they affect work and retirement of older adults. It reflects the view that older people who choose to work into old age should be able to do so in enabling work environments that promote dignity and are free of abuse. The contributing authors come from many disciplines, including law, psychology, social work, business, and international affairs. Many are members of the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (INPEA), a non-governmental organization with consultative status at the United Nations, and have devoted their professional careers to increase awareness and understanding of elder abuse in order to prevent it. The editors hope that broadening the framework within which elder abuse in the workplace is understood will stimulate further research, policy and program development to address this troubling social problem.

Concise and accessible overview of key concepts of the psychology of aging by a renowned scholar and practitioner on the topic, for use in the classroom as a supplement to developmental and clinical psychology courses, and a valuable resource for interdisciplinary studies with a focus on gerontology. Aging 101 dispels common myths about the older and aging population and provides a wealth of evidence-based information that introduces aging theory, many common problem areas that impinge on older adults, as well as treatment approaches. This reader-friendly, compact book explores how psychologists understand and treat Alzheimer's disease and dementia patients, and their caregivers; older adult sexuality including the unique sexual problems confronting gay male, lesbian, bisexual and transgender older adults; older adult abuse; substance abuse; and issues surrounding death and dying, among other compelling topics.

Population ageing is among the most important developments of our time. This book explores the profound challenges faced by an aging world. Leading experts from diverse disciplines describe the fundamental impact demographic aging has on pension systems, on the concepts of retirement and old age, and on the balance of generational justice.

Understand the impact of a global ageing population on how products are bought, and the effect this has on how to market and advertise these products and services to the older generation of consumers. This book contains models for companies to evaluate the success of their own strategies, with tools for improving their age-friendly marketing campaigns.

Gain first-hand knowledge of how today's lesbians aged 60 and over survived the 20th century! I didn't know we were lesbians. We lived together 13 years! Whistling Women is a unique, candid collection of the life experiences of 44 lesbians between 62 and 82 years of age. This book explores new ground with interviews about their memories, feelings, and thoughts on a diversity of perspectivesfrom growing up during the Depression and World War II, to retirement and old age at the height of the gay liberation movement. This unprecedented resource captures a first-person view of lesbian history and documents the struggles and achievements of the women who lived it. All my schooling was women-orientedso I was able to see what women and girls could give to each other. In Whistling Women, these older women share their views on: childhood and young adulthoodfamily, social factors, religion, schooling marriagehusbands, children, divorce lesbian relationshipscoming out/closet relationships, role playing, butch and fem practices conventional politicsparty affiliation, activities, concerns, degree of feminism work and moneyfinancial arrangements, home ownership, investment properties life after 60retirement, health, activities, communities and much more! I dated. I went along. I did it because basically it was the thing to do. But I had crushes on girls. Whistling Women offers you unprecedented statistics on these women and comparisons with statistics gathered in other analyses on lesbian and heterosexual women. This research includes studies of: socioeconomic class in childhood, mid-life, and at retirement level of education of participants number and duration of long-term relationshipsboth heterosexual marriages and lesbian lover relationships age of first lesbian relationship retirement statisticsyear retired, age at retirement economic resources after retirement (compared to general US population) If we had these things in the 1950s [gay bookstores and publications], how different life would be for a lot of people. But we had to pave the way. This book is significant for sociologists, gay and lesbian researchers, and gerontologists, as well as anyone interested in women's history. It also presents recollections of lesbian/mixed barssome famousstarting in the 1930s, memories of the notorious Greenwich Village, the early development of lesbian social groups, and lesbian friendships with gay men. Whistling Girls identifies many of the organizations that cater specifically to older lesbians, such as OLOC (Old Lesbians Organizing for Change) and SOL (Slightly Older Lesbians).

Gain first-hand knowledge of how today's lesbians aged 60 and over survived the 20th century! I didn't know we were lesbians. We lived together 13 years! Whistling Women is a unique, candid collection of the life experiences of 44 lesbians between 62 and 82 years of age. This book explores new ground with interviews about their memories, feelings, and thoughts on a diversity of perspectivesfrom growing up during the Depression and World War II, to retirement and old age at the height of the gay liberation movement. This unprecedented resource captures a first-person view of lesbian history and documents the struggles and achievements of the women who lived it. All my schooling was women-orientedso I was able to see what women and girls could give to each other. In Whistling Women, these older women share their views on: childhood and young adulthoodfamily, social factors, religion, schooling marriagehusbands, children, divorce lesbian relationshipscoming out/closet relationships, role playing, butch and fem practices conventional politicsparty affiliation, activities, concerns, degree of feminism work and moneyfinancial arrangements, home ownership, investment properties life after 60retirement, health, activities, communities and much more! I dated. I went along. I did it because basically it was the thing to do. But I had crushes on girls. Whistling Women offers you unprecedented statistics on these women and comparisons with statistics gathered in other analyses on lesbian and heterosexual women. This research includes studies of: socioeconomic class in childhood, mid-life, and at retirement level of education of participants number and duration of long-term relationshipsboth heterosexual marriages and lesbian lover relationships age of first lesbian relationship retirement statisticsyear retired, age at retirement economic resources after retirement (compared to general US population) If we had these things in the 1950s [gay bookstores and publications], how different life would be for a lot of people. But we had to pave the way. This book is significant for sociologists, gay and lesbian researchers, and gerontologists, as well as anyone interested in women's history. It also presents recollections of lesbian/mixed barssome famousstarting in the 1930s, memories of the notorious Greenwich Village, the early development of lesbian social groups, and lesbian friendships with gay men. Whistling Girls identifies many of the organizations that cater specifically to older lesbians, such as OLOC (Old Lesbians Organizing for Change) and SOL (Slightly Older Lesbians).

Examine the questions of how, what, and why associated with religiousness and spirituality in the lives of older adults! New Directions in the Study of Late Life Religiousness and Spirituality explores new ways of thinking about a topic that was once taboo but that has now attracted considerable attention from the gerontological community. It examines various approaches to methodology and definition that are used in the study of religion, spirituality, and aging. In addition, it explores the ways that gerontological research can highlight the role of religion and spirituality in the lives of older adults. The first section will introduce you to new ways of thinking about research methodology and data analysis that can be applied to studying the complexity of older adults' religious/spiritual practice and beliefs. You'll learn several approaches to the study of phenomena that are both personal and also deeply embedded in community. The second section addresses issues of definition, exploring important questions that call for critical reflection, such as: What are we studying? What social and psychological influences shape our thinking about definition? and Do the definitions used by gerontologists match those held by older people? The final section moves the study of religion, spirituality, and aging beyond a focus on health and mortality to examine well-being more broadly in the context of the life experiences of older adults. Here is a small sample of what you'll learn about in New Directions in the Study of Late Life Religiousness and Spirituality: structural equation modelinga statistical method designed to capture the dynamics inherent in the passage of time feminist qualitative methods for studying spiritual resiliency in older women spirituality as a public health issue the differences between groups of older people in the way they define religion and spirituality the psychosocial implications of two types of religious orientationdwelling and seeking older women's responses to the experience of widowhood and to the question of whether their religious beliefs were affected by the experience how social context influences our decisions and our interpretations of people's religious beliefs, behaviors, and experiences the ways that people caring for a spouse with dementia rely on religious coping a model that delineates three different ways people relate to God in copingand a study that asks whether these types of coping produce different outcomes for caregivers how people adjust to bereavement as a function of their beliefs about an afterlife

This book coaches marketing practitioners and students how to best satisfy the needs of the older consumer population. It first highlights the heterogeneity of the older consumer market, then examines the specific needs of the older consumer. Lastly, the book highlights the most effective ways of reaching and serving older consumer segments for different products and services such as financial services, food and beverages, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, and travel among others. It presents segment-to-industry specific strategies that help marketers develop more refined and targeted micro-marketing strategies and customer relationship management (CRM) systems for building and retaining a large base of older customers. These strategies also help demonstrate how companies can make decisions that increase profitability not only by satisfying consumer needs and wants, but also by creating positive change and improvement in consumer well-being.

The Last Years of Long Lives is a unique account of that period of old age which precedes death. Based on 400 complete individual histories and covering a twenty-year period, it looks at the experiences of people over eighty years old in three important areas: disability, family life and health care. Using the life-course approach to research, it reveals rich data about the contributions of formal and informal care and how life expectancy and experiences of disability interact with experiences of care.

The reader is invited to conceptualise these phenomena as processes in continuous time - processes that are sometimes long and complex, sometimes short and simple - and learns about the four types of disability career before death. At the same time, the author presents a three-stage model of informal care and examines the main patterns of formal service use.

The Last Years of Long Lives presents a new way of looking at old age for students, researchers, practitioners and policy makers and gives a comprehensive picture of what has been called 'the fourth age'.

Sociological Analysis of Aging: The Gay Male Perspective is an exploratory study of the life changes homosexual and bisexual men experience as they age. This unique book presents in-depth, qualitative interviews with gay men, aged 55 and older, focusing on their physical, mental, and social needs. More than one hundred men offer first-hand perceptions on the unique problems they face with regards to employment/retirement, housing, health and well-being, and relationships, and how they function within (or without) a social support system. Sociological Analysis of Aging fills in the gaps in the existing social science literature on homosexuals and aging, updating findings that were inconclusive when first published and/or based on case studies or limited samples. While standard books on aging typically deal with the impact of life events such as child rearing, the empty nest syndrome, and grandparenting, Sociological Analysis of Aging deals with the unique realities that gay men face in addition to the universal concerns of the elderly: affordable health care, affordable housing, and adequate coverage for medication costs. The study examines what can be done to assist successful aging for sexual minorities, particularly in the areas of social policy, service delivery, and public tolerance. Sociological Analysis of Aging focuses on specific research questions: Do aging gay men consider themselves to be physically healthy? Do aging gay men suffer from depression? Do aging gay men have access to social support networks? What are the housing needs of the aging gay communitypresent and future? How involved are aging gay men with family, friends, church, and community? In addition, the men interviewed were asked what, if anything, was left on a to-do list; what the best and worst aspects of aging are; and what, if anything, they would change about the course their lives had taken. Their answers make Sociological Analysis of Aging: The Gay Male Perspective an essential resource for therapists, counselors, and social workers, and for academics working in sociology, psychology, gerontology, and gay studies.

Series Information:
Key Ideas

Long Lives Are for the Rich is the title of a silent ominous program that affects the lives of millions of people. In all developed countries disadvantaged and, especially, poor people die much earlier than the most advantaged. During these shorter lives they suffer ten to twenty years longer from disabilities or chronic disease. This does not happen accidentally: health inequalities – including those between healthy and unhealthy life styles – are mainly caused by social inequalities that are reproduced over the life course. This crucial function of the life course has become painfully visible during its neoliberal reorganization since the early 1980s. Studies about aging over the life course, from birth to death, show the inhumane consequences as people get older. In spite of the enormous wealth that has been piled up in the US for a dwindling percentage of the population, there has been growing public indifference about the needs of those in jobs with low pay and high stress, but also about citizens from a broad middle class who can hardly afford high quality education or healthcare. However, this ominous program affects all: recent mortality rates show that all Americans, including the rich, are unhealthier and dying earlier than citizens of other developed countries. Moreover, the underlying social inequalities are tearing the population apart with nasty consequences for all citizens, including the rich. Although the public awareness of the consequences has been growing, neoliberal policies remain tempting for the economic and political elites of the developed world because of the enormous wealth that is flowing to the top. All this poses urgent questions of social justice. Unfortunately, the predominant studies of social justice along the life course help to reproduce these inequalities by neglecting them. This book analyzes the main dynamics of social inequality over the life course and proposes a theory of social justice that sketches a way forward for a country that is willing to invest in its greatest resource: the creative potential of its population.

In light of demographic change and the growing problems of traditional old-age security systems, this book discusses two essential instruments in connection with privately providing for old-age security: (1) savings in private pension schemes and (2) building up equity for home-ownership. Further, it assesses the relationship between the two instruments and offers a unique overview of the latest market developments. In order to represent the profound differences between the individual member states of the EU, this book features six country-specific studies - covering Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom - that provide detailed insights into the complexity of local private pension schemes, mortgage markets, and housing markets. Lastly, the book discusses public policies and fiscal incentives intended to better integrate residential property with private pensions. It will appeal to both, private households seeking to build up old-age security, as well as policy makers interested in providing secure pension schemes.

Recent decades have seen a fundamental change in the age structure of many western societies. In these societies it is now common for a fifth to a quarter of the population to be retired, for fewer babies to be born than is required to sustain the size of the population and for life expectancy to exceed eighty years old. This book provides an overview of the key issues arising from this demographic change.

This book examines the social aspects of healthy ageing for older individuals. It features more than 15 papers that explore the relevance of the social environment for health on the micro, meso, and macro level. Overall, the book applies a comprehensive contextual approach that includes discussion of how family and friends, neighborhoods, nations, and welfare regimes influence health. The book first explores the issue on the individual level. It looks at the importance of social capital for health among older people, examines types of social networks and health among older Americans, as well as discusses dynamic social capital and mental health in late life. Next, the book looks at the issue through a neighborhood and societal context, which takes into account day-to-day interaction in the immediate environment as well as the social, health, and economic policies in place in different regions in the world, including America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. From there, the book goes on to offer implications and recommendations for research and practice, including the management of related concepts of research on well-being and health. It also offers a psychosocial approach to promoting social capital and mental health among older adults. This book provides health professionals as well as researchers and students in gerontology, sociology, social policy, psychology, and social work with vital insights into the social factors that increase healthy life years and promote well-being.

This book provides deep insights into concerns related to the well-being in older women across the globe. Written by experts in the field, it explores social roles, health, quality of life/well-being, as well as concerns related to abuse and neglect, impacting the health of older women. It discusses important conditions for the holistic health of older women from different perspectives and provides practical guidelines towards improving the overall status of older women's well-being in society. The chapters analyze the wider implications of older women's experiences as family members, drivers of economies and members of a diverse population worldwide. Covering a focus which is applicable to countries across continents, whether developed or developing, the book has an overall appeal to academicians, health care, policy makers as well as researchers in areas such as aging, gerontology, social work and psychology.

This book is the first comprehensive ethnographic study of the diversity of living and ageing experiences of three groups of older migrants - return, lifestyle and ageing-in-place labour migrants - from a comparative perspective. It explores the motivations, ageing experiences and aspirations of transnational ageing migrants in the context of the Portuguese islands of the Azores and situates the research within debates of the ageing-migration nexus. The book's interdisciplinary approach to transnational embodied and emplaced experiences of ageing facilitates a dialogue between various fields concerned with ageing and mobilities, including geography, anthropology, sociology, social gerontology, social work, and studies of health and wellbeing.

In many countries, the number of people working beyond pension age is increasing. This volume investigates this trend in seven different countries, examining the contexts of this development and the consequences of the shifting relationship between work and retirement.

Preparing Participants for Intergenerational Interaction: Training for Success examines established intergenerational programs and provides the training methods necessary for activity directors or practitioners to start a similar program. This book contains exercises that will help you train colleagues and volunteers for these specific programs and includes criteria for activity evaluations. Preparing Participants for Intergenerational Interaction will help you implement programs that enable older adults to build friendships, pass down their skills and knowledge to adolescents, and provide youths with positive role models.Discussing the factors that often limit the interaction of older adults with youths, this text stresses the importance of conveying information and history to younger generations. You will learn why the exchange between different generations is crucial to society and to the improvement of the community in which you live. Preparing Participants for Intergenerational Interaction provides you with proven suggestions and methods that will make your program successful, including: examining Howe-To Industries, a program that teaches entrepreneurial skills to youths through older adults focusing on activities between older adults and youths that address aging sensitivity and racial and ethnic understanding defining the roles of a mentor, including teacher, trainer, developer of talent, and counselor increasing support and understanding in your community by defining target markets and selling the project to the public describing the aspects of group dynamics and how group decisionmaking methods are used to assess the success of the program and its volunteers understanding the community where participants live in order to address issues important to them, such as poverty and other social problems Containing sample handouts, self-evaluations, and detailed lessons for different types of programs, this book offers you guidelines that apply to participants that have a variety of needs within different communities. Preparing Participants for Intergenerational Interaction: Training for Success will enable you to help older adults remain an active and essential part of these communities by teaching youths valuable life skills they may not receive from anyone else.

When you read Full Circle: Spiritual Therapy for the Elderly, you'll discover a brand new therapeutic approach spiritual therapy to treating elderly patients with cognitive disorders. This handy guide will assist you in starting your own renowned spiritually therapeutic program for dementia patients. Full Circle is a how-to book that will prove you can trigger emotional responses in an individual or group therapy session using the right spiritual cues. In the first ten pages of Full Circle, you'll learn about the Spiritual Therapy Program and find the answers to general questions about how and where to establish the program. The remainder of Full Circle contains 80 thematic lesson plans for use in both group and individual sessions. The lessons are flexible and organized into lists to help you formulate the right agenda for individual dementia patients.Full Circle divides 70 themes into these easily accessible categories: Feelings: depression, anger, and shame Life Review: aging, children, and change Sensory: hearing, smell, and touch Special Occasions: Easter, Thanksgiving, and memories of Christmas Spiritual: forgiveness, heaven, and peace In addition, Full Circle has expanded units for higher-achieving seniors. You may also want to use the special notes, poetry, and quotations that are pinpointed within the appropriate specific theme for even more startling results. Full Circle's sophisticated approach to therapy will help you cater to the needs of the cognitively impaired elderly to trigger emotional responses and enhance overall quality of life.

The Asia-Pacific region is now clearly witnessing the rapid ageing of many of its nations, to the extent that it will soon be the region with, relatively, the largest number of older persons. This book focuses on the challenges that this demographic trend poses to economies and societies in the region, and the policies that have evolved to date to meet new demands. It looks forward over the coming decades to consider how societies and economies will deal with ageing and the necessary structural and behavioural changes that this will entail.

eBook available with sample pages: EB:0203463080

Understand the complex ethical, legal, medical, and psychological issues of the most common form of elder abuse Self-Neglect examines the social, ethical, medical, and practical implications of the most prevalent form of elder abuse. It can be difficult to diagnose and treat, and it poses ethical questions that cannot be answered simply. Yet it is so common and so destructive that anyone who works with geriatric patients must come to terms with it. Everyone is familiar with the image of the wild-haired elderly recluse hoarding junk in a dilapidated house, but to their neighbors, friends, and family--as well as to the health care professionals, social workers, and clergy who deal with them--these recluses are a special burden. They often refuse care despite such obvious problems as open sores. They tend to be intelligent and independent. Do they have the right to choose to live in squalor, or are their choices dictated by depression or other diseases? Do health care professionals have a responsibility to treat them against their will or a duty to respect their stated preferences?Self-Neglect examines the topics of passive suicide and indirect life-threatening behavior to help medical practitioners working with the elderly understand why patients do not follow doctor's orders or take care of themselves. Through case studies, this informative book explores the ways in which patients practice self-neglect by ignoring their doctors'advice, extreme lack of self-care, refusal to eat, failure to take their prescribed medication, and alcohol abuse. Self-Neglect offers insight into many facets of this condition, including: choosing among the many definitions of self-neglect what kinds of people become self-neglecting managing self-neglecting patients when and how to intervene the patient's autonomy and personal rights versus the rights of the community self-neglect as a way to gain control of a negative life situation when other tactics have failedDiscussing the sometimes tragic outcome of misdiagnosing self-neglect or leaving it untreated, this intelligent book will help you identify and understand this dangerous behavior and offer your patients better care for this condition.

This special issue highlights how social psychology can further the understanding of important social, health, interpersonal, and intergenerational issues facing people as they age. This issue has three goals: to generate more interest in aging as an area of study for social psychologists by showcasing researchers who are currently integrating basic social psychological research with issues in aging and lifespan development; to challenge readers to think about how their research programs can interconnect with issues in aging; and to demonstrate how social psychological processes have direct application to many of the issues facing people as they age.