Family caregiving affects millions of Americans every day, in all walks of life. At least 17.7 million individuals in the United States are caregivers of an older adult with a health or functional limitation. The nation's family caregivers provide the lion's share of long-term care for our older adult population. They are also central to older adults' access to and receipt of health care and community-based social services. Yet the need to recognize and support caregivers is among the least appreciated challenges facing the aging U.S. population. Families Caring for an Aging America examines the prevalence and nature of family caregiving of older adults and the available evidence on the effectiveness of programs, supports, and other interventions designed to support family caregivers. This report also assesses and recommends policies to address the needs of family caregivers and to minimize the barriers that they encounter in trying to meet the needs of older adults.

Continuing in the tradition of the first edition, Whitbourne's identity process model serves to integrate the physiological with a psychological perspective. The effects of physical changes on the individual are examined in terms of identity, as well as the impact of identity on the interpretation of these changes. The preventive and compensatory steps that indiviuduals can take to offset the aging process are explored as well. As with the first edition, a major strength of this text is the author's illumination of complex biological concepts in a clear and accessible style. The Second Edition includes new material focusing on demographic statistics, chronic diseases, the biopsychosocial perspective, and succesful aging. This edition also features new charts, tables, and figures to highlight the text. This is an excellent text for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of psychology, gerontology, and social work.

Social isolation and loneliness are serious yet underappreciated public health risks that affect a significant portion of the older adult population. Approximately one-quarter of community-dwelling Americans aged 65 and older are considered to be socially isolated, and a significant proportion of adults in the United States report feeling lonely. People who are 50 years of age or older are more likely to experience many of the risk factors that can cause or exacerbate social isolation or loneliness, such as living alone, the loss of family or friends, chronic illness, and sensory impairments. Over a life course, social isolation and loneliness may be episodic or chronic, depending upon an individual's circumstances and perceptions. A substantial body of evidence demonstrates that social isolation presents a major risk for premature mortality, comparable to other risk factors such as high blood pressure, smoking, or obesity. As older adults are particularly high-volume and high-frequency users of the health care system, there is an opportunity for health care professionals to identify, prevent, and mitigate the adverse health impacts of social isolation and loneliness in older adults. Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults summarizes the evidence base and explores how social isolation and loneliness affect health and quality of life in adults aged 50 and older, particularly among low income, underserved, and vulnerable populations. This report makes recommendations specifically for clinical settings of health care to identify those who suffer the resultant negative health impacts of social isolation and loneliness and target interventions to improve their social conditions. Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults considers clinical tools and methodologies, better education and training for the health care workforce, and dissemination and implementation that will be important for translating research into practice, especially as the evidence base for effective interventions continues to flourish.

Does a longer life mean a healthier life? The number of adults over 65 in the United States is growing, but many may not be aware that they are at greater risk from foodborne diseases and their nutritional needs change as they age. The IOM's Food Forum held a workshop October 29-30, 2009, to discuss food safety and nutrition concerns for older adults.

As the first of the nation's 78 million baby boomers begin reaching age 65 in 2011, they will face a health care workforce that is too small and woefully unprepared to meet their specific health needs. Retooling for an Aging America calls for bold initiatives starting immediately to train all health care providers in the basics of geriatric care and to prepare family members and other informal caregivers, who currently receive little or no training in how to tend to their aging loved ones. The book also recommends that Medicare, Medicaid, and other health plans pay higher rates to boost recruitment and retention of geriatric specialists and care aides. Educators and health professional groups can use Retooling for an Aging America to institute or increase formal education and training in geriatrics. Consumer groups can use the book to advocate for improving the care for older adults. Health care professional and occupational groups can use it to improve the quality of health care jobs.

This successful, student-friendly text brings a social problems approach to the interdisciplinary study of gerontology. Academic research is combined with an empathetic view of the lives of older persons to involve students emotionally and intellectually. It retains popular Old is News chapter introductions. This edition includes more on the oldest-old, religion, and uses more graphs, charts, and maps to present data.

The process of aging is receiving an increasing amount of attention from behavioral scientists. Middle Age and Aging is an attempt to organize and select from the proliferation of material available in this field. The selections in this volume emphasize some of the major topics that lie closest to the problem of what social and psychological adaptations are required as individuals move through the second half of their lives. Major attention is paid to the importance of age-status and age-sex roles; psychological changes in the life-cycle; social-psychological theories of aging; attitudes toward health; changing family roles; work, retirement, and leisure; certain other dimensions of the immediate social environment such as friendships, neighboring patterns, and living arrangements; differences in cultural settings; and perspectives of time and death.

Fully updated and revised, this new edition of a highly successful text provides students, clinicians, and academics with a thorough introduction to aging and mental health. The third edition of Aging and Mental Health is filled with new updates and features, including the impact of the DSM-5 on diagnosis and treatment of older adults. Like its predecessors, it uses case examples to introduce readers to the field of aging and mental health. It also provides both a synopsis of basic gerontology needed for clinical work with older adults and an analysis of several facets of aging well. Introductory chapters are followed by a series of chapters that describe the major theoretical models used to understand mental health and mental disorders among older adults. Following entries are devoted to the major forms of mental disorders in later life, with a focus on diagnosis, assessment, and treatment issues. Finally, the book focuses on the settings and contexts of professional mental health practice and on emerging policy issues that affect research and practice. This combination of theory and practice helps readers conceptualize mental health problems in later life and negotiate the complex decisions involved with the assessment and treatment of those problems. Features new material on important topics including positive mental health, hoarding disorder, chronic pain, housing, caregiving, and ethical and legal concerns Substantially revised and updated throughout, including reference to the DSM-5 Offers chapter-end recommendations of websites for further information Includes discussion questions and critical thinking questions at the end of each chapter Aging and Mental Health, Third Edition is an ideal text for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in psychology, for service providers in psychology, psychiatry, social work, and counseling, and for clinicians who are experienced mental health service providers but who have not had much experience working specifically with older adults and their families.

As the United States and the rest of the world face the unprecedented challenge of aging populations, this volume draws together for the first time state-of-the-art work from the emerging field of the demography of aging. The nine chapters, written by experts from a variety of disciplines, highlight data sources and research approaches, results, and proposed strategies on a topic with major policy implications for labor forces, economic well-being, health care, and the need for social and family supports.

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