This concise survey investigates the television general managers' and news directors' attitudes towards the elderly in the United States. Originally published in 1997, it raises important issues of ageing in relation to the media with specific focus on the older viewer's status as a viewing audience of the news and how they are presented in the news. This is still useful food for thought for gerontologists, mass communication researchers, social psychologists and media studies researchers.

In light of the recent financial crisis and changing economic landscape, McNamara and Williamson present and analyze the possibility of working longer. Including a range of potential policies (e.g., further increasing the age of eligibility for full Social Security benefits, allocating more government resources to retraining and job search assistance for older workers), this is one of the major approaches currently being discussed by policy analysts inside and outside of the government. Emphasizing the role of inequalities and diversity among older adults, this book provides a framework for thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of working past the current retirement age. This book is for Sociology of Aging, Social Inequalities, and Social Problems courses.

This book provides practical evidence-based strategies that will help clinicians across a broad range of disciplines to address and discuss the main issues an aging person is likely to face and overcome if they are to maintain a sense of well-being as they age. Based on an extensive body of research, the relevant up-to-date knowledge for each topic is concisely presented, followed by practical, concrete, evidence-based suggestions as to how a healthcare provider might acknowledge and create a partnership with their clients to help the person increase their sense of well-being. Each chapter contains a list of key terms, a summary, and case examples that illustrate in realistic and humanistic ways how a person might present the concern being addressed and intervene. The specific challenges associated with aging that are addressed include: anxiety attached to an increasing awareness of mortality; retirement; the increasing number of losses of significant others; regrets; memory loss; the arrival of old-old age and feelings of loneliness, mattering insufficiently, and a loss of purpose; and finally, dealing with imminent death. This book is suitable for all health professionals who provide clinical services or advice to older adults including physicians (i.e. particularly in the specialties of internal medicine, family medicine, geriatrics, and geriatric psychiatry), nurses, social workers, psychologists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and audiologists.

The process of dementia makes the experience of day-to-day living an acute challenge. This could be mediated with educated and timely inputs and the caring contract negotiated to preserve both dignity and quality of life. The premise of the adaptive response model is that armed with the knowledge of human systems and their ability to adapt and adjust and with a firm application and emphasis on person-centred approaches to dementia care then the experience can be enhanced and living with one of the dementias can be made less traumatic. This holistic approach proposes a method of using environmental and social psychology to maximise function in the individual and to minimise the negative and destructive elements of the perceived and real environment.

Environmental gerontology - the research on aging and environment - evolved during the late 1960s, when the domain became a relevant topic due to societal concerns with the problems of housing for elderly people. The field proliferated during the 1970s and 1980s, and remains viable and active today on an international scale. However, in recent times, the viability of the field and its future has been brought into question. In this volume, international experts across diverse areas reflect on the current progress of their respective disciplines, illustrating research-grounded benefits emerging from their work, and suggesting new agenda that can guide progress in the future. The contributors address a wide range of issues, including: evaluation of existing paradigms and new theories that might advance both research and training; issues and applications in methods, measures, and empirically-generated research agenda; innovative approaches to environmental transformations in home, community, and long-term care settings; and understudied populations and issues in environmental gerontology. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Housing for the Elderly.

A wide range of research explores patterns of lateralisation for processing emotion. Yet, relatively little explores how emotion lateralisation changes across the lifespan. This special issue addresses this gap in our understanding, focusing on what might influence the development of laterality for emotion processing, how links between lateralisation for emotion processing may be related to an individual's emotion recognition performance, how lateralisation for emotion processing may explain social deficits in clinical populations, and if patterns of lateralisation might be dependent on one's life experiences. Importantly, the papers in this special issue explore variability in lateralisation at differing time points from infancy to old age. They employ a wide range of methods to explore these changes in emotion lateralisation, such as behavioural measures and electrophysiological methods. The varying approaches allow for a broad exploration of the development of lateralisation for emotion processing from infancy through childhood, changes through adulthood and into older age, and considers the relationship between the neuropsychological processing of emotional stimuli, behavioural emotional processing, and social interactions. The empirical work presented in this issue provides a number of unique contributions to the understanding of the relationship between emotion lateralisation and behaviour, with the review paper bringing together our current understanding with these new insights for the development of emotion lateralisation.

Although many aspects of fluid cognition decline with advancing age, simple observation in the wild suggests that older adults, generally speaking, do very well in their day-to-day life. The study of the orchestration of cognitive, social, and motivational compensatory mechanisms in the service of effective and healthy aging provides a meaningful challenge to traditional ways of examining developmental changes in cognitive performance. An additional impetus comes from recent discoveries in the neuroscience of aging, all demonstrating substantial amounts of functional modifiability, compensation, and plasticity of the human brain, even in very old age. Furthermore, the discovery of string relationships between engagement in mentally enriching and socially stimulating activities and cognitive health and longevity has sparked a new generation of training studies aimed at improving or sustaining cognitive fitness in old age. This book examines the role of compensatory mechanisms in such diverse facets of cognitive processing as perceptual processes, text comprehension, dual-task processing, and episodic and prospective memory. This ensemble of studies compellingly shows that older adults' everyday cognitive life is governed not by the decline in elementary cognitive processes as measured in the lab, but by a multitude of compensatory mechanisms, most of which are of the social/motivational variety. Much of this compensatory behavior can be elicited with no or only little experimental prodding, underscoring the self-organizing or self-initiated nature of this type of behavior, even in advanced old age. This book was originally published as a special issue of Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of a growing phenomenon in migration: retired Americans moving to Latin America. Through in-depth profiles of two of the most popular destinations - Cuenca, Ecuador and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, the book provides a unique commentary on the social forces shaping this new diaspora and its impact on the settings to which retirees relocate. Sections of the book address the lives and activities of retirees themselves; their impact on real estate, business development, and gentrification within historic cities; the availability and access to medical and long-term care services; and the role of governmental policies in attracting immigrant retirees and shaping their societal impact. Concluding sections provide guidance for potential retirees and for cities and countries interested in attracting these new immigrants while minimizing adverse impact on local culture and quality of life. Carefully researched and extensively illustrated with photographs, maps, figures, and tables, the book serves as an important new resource for scientists and policy makers, as well as for baby boomers who have retired abroad or are considering doing so.

As the oldest members of the baby boomer generation head into their retirement years, this demographic shift is having a substantial influence on uses of mass media, as well as the images portrayed in these media. Mass Media, An Aging Population, and the Baby Boomers provides a comprehensive examination of the relationship between media and aging issues, addressing mass media theory and practice as it relates to older Americans. Reviewing current research on communication and gerontology, authors Michael Hilt and Jeremy Lipschultz focus on aging baby boomers and their experiences with television, radio, print media, entertainment, advertising and public relations, along with the Internet and new media. They draw from studies about health and sexuality to understand views of aging, and present a view of older people as important players in the political process. Hilt and Lipschultz conclude the volume by addressing trends and making predictions related to baby boomers and mass media. Providing a timely and insightful examination of the linkage between mass media and aging issues, this volume will prove a valuable resource for scholars and students in media and gerontology. It is intended for use in coursework addressing such topics as mass communication and society, media and aging, media and public opinion, sociology, and social gerontology.

Designing Public Space for an Ageing Population examines the barriers older people face by being a pedestrian in the built environment and demonstrates how to overcome them. Drawing on research carried out across the globe, and framed around Bourdieu's theory of capitals, this book establishes how to overcome restrictions and barriers to mobility including: - Infrastructure capital, such as technology, services, roads, pavements, finance and economics - Social capital, for example friends, family, neighbourhood and community - Cultural capital (norms, expectations, rules, laws) - Individual capital (skills, abilities, resilience, adaptation and desire and willingness to change) The book demonstrates that the public realm must be safe and accessible, but also attractive and desirable to an ageing population. The book includes case studies presenting solutions around CABE's objectives of urban design, notably: safe and accessible space including ease of movement; legible space, including adaptability, diversity and choice and; distinctive and aesthetically pleasing space, including character, continuity and quality.

This book presents an innovative demographic toolkit known as the ProFamy extended cohort-component method for the projection of household structures and living arrangements with empirical applications to the United States, the largest developed country, and China, the largest developing country. The ProFamy method uses demographic rates as inputs to project detailed distributions of household types and sizes, living arrangements of all household members, and population by age, sex, race/ethnicity, and urban/rural residence at national, sub-national, or small area levels. It can also project elderly care needs and costs, pension deficits, and household consumption. The ProFamy method presented herein has substantial merits compared to the traditional headship rate method, which is not linked to demographic rates and projects limited household types without other household members than "heads."

The book consists of four parts. The first part presents the methodology, data, estimation issues, and empirical assessments. The next parts present applications in the United States (part two) and China (part three), concerning demographic, social, economic, and business research; policy analysis, including forecasting future trends of household type/size, elderly living arrangements, disability, and home-based care costs, and household consumption including housing and vehicles. The fourth part includes a user's guide for the ProFamy software to project households, living arrangements, and home-based consumptions.

This book offers an invaluable toolkit for researchers, analysts and students in academic, public and private businesses, whose work is related to levels and rates of change in households, population and consumption patterns.

Routledge Library Editions: The City reprints some of the most important works in urban studies published in the last century. For further information on this collection please email [email protected].

The psychology of aging is an exciting and rapidly-developing field. This volume provides a collection of classic, original and often widely-cited papers, including some older papers which may be hard to find through conventional searches. Taken together, they help to address some key questions: what are the cognitive changes related to aging? Is mental exercise useful? To what extent might intelligence, education or stimulating mental activities delay or even reduce cognitive symptoms of dementia? However, the book goes well beyond cognition and addresses social and emotional changes in aging, as well as looking at how lifestyle factors may be influential in psychological functioning. The section on the psychology of dementia covers the evolving psychological models, plus innovative types of psychological interventions. As more people live to an age where they are dependent on others, the book also considers the stresses on carers and how carers can be supported. Lastly, other aspects of mental health problems in old-age are addressed, including depression, PTSD and personality disorder. This collection of intriguing and inspiring papers will liven up the shelves of students, researchers and academics in the field as well as being a very useful resource for research, teaching and study.

Dementia: The Basics provides the reader with a clear and compassionate introduction to dementia and an accessible guide to dealing with different parts of the dementia journey, from pre-diagnosis and diagnosis to post-diagnostic support, increasing care needs and end of life care.

Co-authored by an academic, a person living with dementia and a family carer, the book endeavours to raise awareness of dementia, challenge stereotypical and negative ideas about what it means to have dementia and champion a society where people living with dementia can be active as they wish for as long as possible. The authors present an overview of current research at each step of the dementia journey as well as including knowledge from lived experience, enhancing understanding and challenging thinking about what it might be like to live with a diagnosis or to care for a loved one. As a whole, the book emphasises the importance of prioritising the person living with dementia, as well as considering the impact of what any initiative or action might mean for them, their families and their care supporters.

Offering both an accessible introduction to dementia and practical tools, this book will be ideal for health and social care professionals, students of social care, health care and nursing, people with dementia, carers and anyone wanting to understand more about the condition.

Table of Contents

Section 1 Introduction

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Pre-diagnosis

Chapter 3: Diagnosis of dementia

Section 2 Introduction

Chapter 4: Post-diagnostic support for the person living with dementia

Chapter 5: The post-diagnostic support needs of family members and friends who provide care and support

Chapter 6: Supporting the person living with dementia and their care supporter together

Section 3 Introduction

Chapter 7: Care need transitions in the journey with dementia

Chapter 8: End of Life Care

Chapter 9: Conclusion

LGBT older adults experience issues and challenges that are unique, including institutional heteronormativity, heterosexism in organizations, and homophobia among caregivers and social service providers. This book presents a diverse group of scholars, activists, social service providers, and researchers from around the globe examining current research, practices, and policies on aging among LGBT individuals. This revealing source lays out the significant challenges faced not only by this aging sexual minority population, but also for their social service providers-and those who train them. The chapters explore the Greater London area Polari Project, the adjustments made in the long-running HIV support group at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, and the Liberation Psychology workshops in Ireland for lesbian and transgendered persons. This volume can serve as an excellent teacher resource for engaging undergraduate and graduate students in various professions who will be working with older LGBT adults. This text is extensively referenced and includes tables to clearly present research. This book is a valuable source for program administrators and supervisors, human behavior researchers, psychologists and psychotherapists, social planners and policy specialists, community developers and organizers, case managers, direct service practitioners involved with LGBT communities, educators, and students. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services.

Elder Abuse: Forensic, Legal and Medical Aspects focuses on the psychological, financial and physical abuse and neglect that is widespread in elder abuse across socioeconomic levels. It provides expert information on forensic and legal topics that professionals need to understand to confront these crimes. The topics included are those most important in the detection and prosecution of elder abuse. Identification and epidemiology are discussed, as are types and presentations of abuse. Written at a level for both professionals and students who wish to gain a broader understanding of specific forensic topics in elder maltreatment, this book is an ideal source.

In the past decade, evidence based practice (EBP) has emerged as one of the most important movements to improve the effectiveness of clinical care. As the number of older adults continues to grow, it is essential that practitioners have knowledge of effective strategies to improve both the medical and the psychosocial aspects of older persons' lives. The purpose of this work is to present systematic reviews of research-based psychosocial interventions for older adults and their caregivers.

The interventions presented focus on a variety of critical issues facing older adults today including medical illnesses (cardiac disease, diabetes, arthritis/pain, cancer, and HIV/AIDS), mental health/cognitive disorders (depression/anxiety, dementia, substance abuse), and social functioning (developmental disabilities, end-of-life, dementia caregivers, grandparent caregivers). For each of these areas the prevalence of the problem, the demographics of those affected, and the nature and consequences of the problem are discussed. The empirical literature is then reviewed. A treatment summary highlights the type and nature of research supporting the interventions reviewed and is followed by a conclusion section that summarizes the status of intervention research for the specified issue. A Treatment Resource Appendix for each area is included. These appendices highlight manuals, books, articles and web resources that detail the treatment approaches and methodologies discussed.

This book was previously published as a special issue of the Journal of Gerontological Social Work.

What did it mean to be old in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England? Historians researching the historicity of the aging experience have to search for references hidden within a wide range of sources relating to poverty, religion, the family or medicine. This eight-volume reset edition brings together selections from medical treatises, sermons, petitions, legal documents, parish records, almshouse accounts, private letters, diaries and ballads, to investigate cultural and medical understanding of old age in pre-industrial England.All of the material presented in this edition is rare and difficult to access. Much of it exists only in manuscript form and is previously unpublished.

Well-Being of Older People in Ageing Societies poses answers to the question of how we can measure and conceptualize the well-being of older people. It focuses on the future research agenda and policy reforms that will be necessary to maintain a decent well-being for older people, given the context of our ageing populations. This book draws on longitudinal datasets and empirical research on the multidimensional measures of older people's welfare, providing a comparative analysis of social assistance and pensions for older people in the UK and The Netherlands. This title will be essential reading to anyone with an interest in gerontology and the effect society, public policy and governance can have on the welfare of older people.

The nature of health in later life has conventionally been studied from two perspectives. Medical sociologists have focused on the failing body, chronic illness, infirmity and mortality, while social gerontologists on the other hand have focused on the epidemiology of old age and health and social policy. By examining these perspectives, Higgs and Jones show how both standpoints have a restricted sense of contemporary ageing which has prevented an understanding of the way in which health in later life has changed. In the book, the authors point out that the current debates on longevity and disability are being transformed by the emergence of a fitter and healthier older population. This third age - where fitness and participation are valorised - leads to the increasing salience of issues such as bodily control, age-denial and anti-ageing medicine. By discussing the key issue of old age versus ageing, the authors examine the prospect of a new sociology - a sociology of health in later life. Medical Sociology and Old Age is essential reading for all students and researchers of medical sociology and gerontology and for anyone concerned with the challenge of ageing populations in the twenty-first century. This book is essential reading for all students and researchers of medical sociology and gerontology.

Psychological, social, and spiritual care is as important as physical care at the end of life. Yet caregivers often feel ill-equipped to give that nonphysical care. This book shows how to do it. The book addresses all caregivers who attend dying patients: doctors, nurses, chaplains, clergy in the pastorate, social workers, clinical psychologists, family caregivers, and others. It covers such topics as the functional and emotional trajectories of dying; the varied approaches of patients and caregivers to end-of-life decisions; culturally based beliefs about dying; the differences between depression and grief; and people's views about the right time to die, the death experience itself, and the afterlife. For each topic the book introduces core concepts and summarizes recent research about them. The book presents much of its material in readable tables for easy reference; applies the material to real-life cases; lists the main "take home" points for each chapter; and gives references for additional reading. The book helps caregivers anticipate the reactions of patients and survivors to end-of-life traumas and suggests how caregivers can respond insightfully and compassionately. At the same time the book challenges caregivers to think through their own views about death and dying. This book, therefore, is a must-read for all caregivers professional and nonprofessional alike who strive to give their patients comprehensive, high-quality end-of-life care.

Older people in the United States are living longer, staying healthier, and leaving the labor force earlier than ever before. They have leisure time and are willing, able, and qualified to be productive members of society. This book focuses on the contributions that many older people can and do make and the policy changes that are necessary to harness this productive capacity-for the good of the country and for the good of the individuals involved. The contributors to this book-experts in economics, sociology, political science, social welfare, and policy studies-have drawn on new data from a survey of 2,999 Americans aged 55 and older conducted by Louis Harris Associates for The Commonwealth Fund. One chapter also analyzes results from a cross-national survey of 900 people aged 65 and older in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, West Germany, and Japan. According to the findings, three out of four older Americans are actively engaged in working for pay, volunteering for organizations, caring for sick or disabled relatives or friends, or helping their children or grandchildren. Many are involved in several of these activities. The book thus corrects the stereotypes of seniors as affluent retirees or frail dependents, providing a more accurate description of older people's interests and activities. It also assesses the economic value of their productivity and recommends ways to facilitate their involvement in the work force. Copublished with The Commonwealth Fund Copublished with The Commonwealth Fund

This book is the first to explore 'old age' in cinema at the intersection of gender, ageing, celebrity and genre studies. It takes its cue from the dual meanings of 'silvering' - economics and ageing - and explores shifting formulations of 'old age' and gender in contemporary cinema. Broad in its scope, the book establishes the importance of silver audiences to the survival of cinema exhibition while also forging connections between the pleasures of 'old age' films, consumer culture, the 'economy of celebrity' and the gendered silvering of stardom. The chapters examine gendered genres such as romantic comedies, action and heist movies, the prosthetics of costume, and CGI enabled age transformations. Through this analysis, Josephine Dolan teases out the different meanings of ageing masculinity and femininity offered in contemporary cinema. She identifies ageing femininity as the pathologised target of rejuvenation while masculine ageing is seen to enhance an enduring youthfulness. This book has interdisciplinary appeal and will engage scholars interested in 'old age' and gender representations in contemporary cinema.

A selection of proceedings from the 2004 Association for Gerontology in Higher Education annual conference Aging Education in a Global Context is a carefully considered set of papers based on selected proceedings from the 2004 Association for Gerontology in Higher Education annual conference. Each forward-thinking presentation provides unique perspectives on teaching resources and education, presenting a wellspring of creative ideas for new and experienced teachers in gerontology and aging education. Respected educators present cutting-edge concepts and effective strategies in gerontology curriculum development and cross-cultural perspectives for advancing gerontology as a field of study. Over the next twenty years, the world's aging population will increase dramatically, requiring increased attention to global aging issues. To prepare gerontologists around the world for future challenges, Aging Education in a Global Context provides educators with fresh viewpoints and practical information on which to base the latest teaching strategies. Each presentation provides a multitude of valuable ideas perfect for incorporating into aging education curriculums, such as how to use films and literature for teaching about aging, how to enfold global perspectives into aging courses, and how to avoid cross-cultural misunderstandings when teaching gerontology in a host country. This invaluable resource is extensively referenced. Aging Education in a Global Context examines aging education, issues, and ageism topics such as: the consequences of globalization for older people a course design incorporating cross-cultural, anthropological approaches to understanding aging an approach to teach about death and dying through the cross-cultural viewpoint of various religious faiths a study of fourteen international films that provides gerontologists with models of successful aging to pass on in coursework teaching cross-cultural aging using Chilean literary portrayals of elders the evolution and present state of gerontology education in Japan gerontology research and cooperative education in Kenya educating about community-based long-term care in China Aging Education in a Global Context presents a wealth of new ideas for all gerontology educators and educators addressing cross-cultural aging issues within discipline-based courses in sociology, social work, anthropology, public policy, and psychology.