Explore significantbut often-overlookedaspects of aging policy! This unique addition to the literature on aging policy will help you understand devolutionthe decentralizing of service provisionand the roles that state/local government and private organizations now play in addressing the needs of our aging population. It will show you how to initiate innovations and make positive changes in aging policy through state and local initiatives, collaborations between the federal government and other government agencies, public/private collaboration, and strictly private initiatives. From the editors: Around the world, the ground rules are being questioned about the role of national governments in addressing domestic needs. During the twentieth century in countries throughout the world, central governments assumed major responsibilities for a wide variety of human needs. Whether the concern was income security, health, housing, or education, interventions were premised upon convictions that a strong public sector role was essential and that major involvement of national governments was needed. More recently, a significant pattern [devolution] has emerged in many countries wherein these responsibilities have shifted away from national governments to regional and local governments as well as from the public to the private sector. Thoughtfully divided into five sections that illustrate distinctly different forms of devolution, this book first provides an essential overview of devolution and then examines its implications for vital aspects of service provision to the elderly. In the United States in recent years, the single greatest focus for devolution has been the transformation of income security protections for poor families. The federal Aid to Families With Dependent Children program has been replaced by the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program. Devolution and Aging Policy examines that change and other important facets of the current climate of devolution, including: Medicaid-financed long-term care state sponsorship of services in retirement communities the implications of the Workforce Investment Act for the access of older workers to training at a state level to upgrade their work skills public/private sector collaboration in long-term care insurance long-term care ombudsman programs what state governments can do to help elders make use of information technology property tax credits for seniors that are given in exchange for volunteering on the municipal level how an HMO can encourage and stimulate service coordination and more!

Explore significantbut often-overlookedaspects of aging policy! This unique addition to the literature on aging policy will help you understand devolutionthe decentralizing of service provisionand the roles that state/local government and private organizations now play in addressing the needs of our aging population. It will show you how to initiate innovations and make positive changes in aging policy through state and local initiatives, collaborations between the federal government and other government agencies, public/private collaboration, and strictly private initiatives. From the editors: Around the world, the ground rules are being questioned about the role of national governments in addressing domestic needs. During the twentieth century in countries throughout the world, central governments assumed major responsibilities for a wide variety of human needs. Whether the concern was income security, health, housing, or education, interventions were premised upon convictions that a strong public sector role was essential and that major involvement of national governments was needed. More recently, a significant pattern [devolution] has emerged in many countries wherein these responsibilities have shifted away from national governments to regional and local governments as well as from the public to the private sector. Thoughtfully divided into five sections that illustrate distinctly different forms of devolution, this book first provides an essential overview of devolution and then examines its implications for vital aspects of service provision to the elderly. In the United States in recent years, the single greatest focus for devolution has been the transformation of income security protections for poor families. The federal Aid to Families With Dependent Children program has been replaced by the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program. Devolution and Aging Policy examines that change and other important facets of the current climate of devolution, including: Medicaid-financed long-term care state sponsorship of services in retirement communities the implications of the Workforce Investment Act for the access of older workers to training at a state level to upgrade their work skills public/private sector collaboration in long-term care insurance long-term care ombudsman programs what state governments can do to help elders make use of information technology property tax credits for seniors that are given in exchange for volunteering on the municipal level how an HMO can encourage and stimulate service coordination and more!

By the end of the current decade, many baby boomers will be senior citizens. What policies should we enact to prepare for an aging society?In the coming decade, we have a unique opportunity to create new and better aging policies. This collection of twenty essays by prominent educators, researchers, and policy analysts in the field of gerontology brings together innovative ideas from the United States, Europe, and Japan. Instead of focusing on utopian dreams, these exciting proposals are based on policy changes that may well be attainable in the next ten years. The vital concerns addressed in Advancing Aging Policy as the 21st Century Begins include work and retirement issues, the aging prison population, long-term care, Latino elders, transportation, death and dying issues, and the aging of the baby boom generation. Advancing Aging Policy as the 21st Century Begins explores: innovative policies and care arrangements around the world the importance of a strong economy that provides opportunities for seniors who seek them and support for those who need it the need for flexible retirement and employment policies for older adults the connections between family policy and aging policy the importance of improving training and compensation for workers in long-term care the special needs of our diverse and rapidly growing population of older people the importance of focusing aging policy on people rather than on programsThis forward-looking book on policy and aging in the coming decade puts the experience and insight of leaders in the field from around the world in your hands. Policymakers, educators, and students of gerontology will find it an invaluable resource.

Thirty years ago, when compared to the U.S., England, France, and Sweden, Japan had the lowest life expectancy for males and females. Today, Japan has the highest life expectancy and is the world's most rapidly aging society. Public Policy and the Old Age Revolution in Japan captures the vitality of Japanese policymakers and the challenges they face in shaping a modern society responding to its changing needs. The rapid transition to an aging society poses a set of complex policy and resource dilemmas; the responses taken in Japan are of great value to policymakers, professionals, and students in the fields of gerontology, Asian and Japanese studies, sociology, public policy, administration and management, and anthropology in other industrial aging societies. Readers of Public Policy and the Old Age Revolution in Japan will discover the array of social and economic implications that comes with an increasingly aged society. Such a change in demographics affects pension expenditures and pension contributions, capital formation and savings rates, health costs, service systems, tax bases, labor pools, career counseling, training, advertising, and marketing. This book does not stop with these topics, however. Readers also learn about: how older Japanese workers are staying employed and employable policies in Japan for a smooth transition from work to retirement Japan's Silver Human Resource Centers the new direction of health services in Japan the Japanese financing system for elderly health care the expansion of formalized in-home services for Japan's aged Japanese housing policy and the concept of universal design the Gold Plan, a comprehensive ten-year plan to promote health care and welfare for the aged the concept of ikigai--promoting feelings of purpose and self-worth in the agedPublic Policy and the Old Age Revolution in Japan is one of only a handful of books prepared in English by American and Japanese authors for an international audience about aging and social policy in Japan. The book's recent collection of articles by leading scholars on the subject makes it a unique and timely source of information. Above all, Public Policy and the Old Age Revolution in Japan makes it clear that the rest of the world has many valuable lessons to learn by studying Japan's approach to its rapidly aging society.

Within the context of long-range planning, this book examines the changing responsibilities of the state and family toward elders in different societies around the world. International Perspectives on State and Family Support for the Elderly presents a fresh range of lucid analyses of family caregiving policy from Canada, the United States, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Austria, Denmark, Israel, and the People's Republic of China. Different institutional structures, levels of economic development, and cultural values, among other factors, impact policy development in various countries. With the information examined in this book, readers can gain an understanding of elder care in other societies, which can help them in developing policies for their own countries.Authors of International Perspectives on State and Family Support for the Elderly address questions such as: Who is responsible for caring for the aged? What are the policy issues that determine how such care is handled in various countries? Are the underlying principles upon which policy is based changing? Who pays for the care of the aged? What is the balance of the roles of government, family, and community? Along with these questions, authors discuss: the importance of family care the well-being, payment, and rights of informal caregivers providing services for informal caregivers shifting the burden of care from formal organizations to families the effects of governmental frameworks on caregiving the impact of the political agenda on caregiving caregiving and the welfare stateInternational Perspectives on State and Family Support for the Elderly contains information for all professionals interested or involved in developing policy for the elderly. Demographers, sociologists, social workers, health care and public health professionals, gerontologists, and advanced students in these fields will find this book a helpful guide in their studies.

Thirty years ago, when compared to the U.S., England, France, and Sweden, Japan had the lowest life expectancy for males and females. Today, Japan has the highest life expectancy and is the world's most rapidly aging society. Public Policy and the Old Age Revolution in Japan captures the vitality of Japanese policymakers and the challenges they face in shaping a modern society responding to its changing needs. The rapid transition to an aging society poses a set of complex policy and resource dilemmas; the responses taken in Japan are of great value to policymakers, professionals, and students in the fields of gerontology, Asian and Japanese studies, sociology, public policy, administration and management, and anthropology in other industrial aging societies. Readers of Public Policy and the Old Age Revolution in Japan will discover the array of social and economic implications that comes with an increasingly aged society. Such a change in demographics affects pension expenditures and pension contributions, capital formation and savings rates, health costs, service systems, tax bases, labor pools, career counseling, training, advertising, and marketing. This book does not stop with these topics, however. Readers also learn about: how older Japanese workers are staying employed and employable policies in Japan for a smooth transition from work to retirement Japan's Silver Human Resource Centers the new direction of health services in Japan the Japanese financing system for elderly health care the expansion of formalized in-home services for Japan's aged Japanese housing policy and the concept of universal design the Gold Plan, a comprehensive ten-year plan to promote health care and welfare for the aged the concept of ikigai--promoting feelings of purpose and self-worth in the agedPublic Policy and the Old Age Revolution in Japan is one of only a handful of books prepared in English by American and Japanese authors for an international audience about aging and social policy in Japan. The book's recent collection of articles by leading scholars on the subject makes it a unique and timely source of information. Above all, Public Policy and the Old Age Revolution in Japan makes it clear that the rest of the world has many valuable lessons to learn by studying Japan's approach to its rapidly aging society.