Social Science : Gerontology

"This volume is uncontestably the most comprehensive and authoritative work on the subject of self-care available to date. It should set the stage for a new policy perspective on building a health care system that incorporates self-care at its core."-- Lowell S. Levin, Yale School of Public Health. Practitioners and researchers who work with older adults are challenged to find ways to strengthen an elderly person's capacity to cope wiht age-related changes that threaten independence. This volume assesses the efficacy of self-care in maintaining autonomy. It applies a broad definition of self-care that includes a range of behaviors undertaken by individuals, families, and communities to enhance health, prevent disease, limit illness, and restore health. more...

Price: $60.00

"A welcome addition to the literature in this important area of work, that builds on...the empirical studies which have illuminated our understanding of the requirements of effective service provision. The final section...is, in a real sense, a call for action, for all of us in the field and for public officials and 'opinion makers' to respond to the need for 'Social Care' now and in the new millenium."--from the foreword by Rose Dobrof , DSW, Brookdale Professor of Gerontology, Hunter College, and James R. Dumpson, PhD, Chairman of Policy Center for Aging, New York Community Trust. Based on two groundbreaking studies of older people in an urban setting, this important book focuses on access to social services for different ethnicities. Cantor and Brennan review different models and provide the theoretical base for the book in Part I. They describe ways in which the complementary roles of informal and formal systems change as a function of the health status of older people. In Part II, they illustrate the ways in which ethnicity, class, and culture affect the roles of the formal and informal systems by focusing on specific case studies of African American, Latino, and Jewish elderly. more...

Price: $70.00

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Price: $45.00

This collection considers ways in which societal contexts influence aging by influencing self-regulatory processes. No one doubts that the social contexts in which individuals develop exert strong influence on life trajectories. Those born into environments that provide high quality education, supportive social relations, and economic assets do better in old age than those born into environments bereft of such resources. The extent of this influence, however, is only beginning to be revealed. Recent research shows that life experiences influence basic brain structures (e.g. the effect of musical training on neural organization) and functions (e.g. inflammatory processes), and that social embeddedness may even protect against Alzheimer's disease. Similarly, education increasingly appears to have a "real" effect on neural integrity. Thus, societal contexts may not simply open or close doors for individuals, but may influence self-regulatory processes at the most basic levels of functioning. Although social structures are generally seen as the independent variables that affect individual aging, it is also possible to think of a lifetime development of self-regulatory processes leading to behaviors in old age that can have impact on and modify societal structures. Two parts of this book consider self-regulation as the dependent variable, asking how social contexts influence cognitive, emotional, and self-regulatory processes. The third part reverses the question, treating self-regulation as the independent variable and retirement and physical health as dependent variables. In this part, consideration is given to how the effectiveness of self-regulation influences physical and economic outcomes in old age. more...

Price: $55.00

Studies in the Economics of Aging is the fourth book in a series from the National Bureau of Economic Research that addresses economic issues in aging and retirement. Building on the research in The Economics of Aging (1989), Issues in the Economics of Aging (1990), and Topics in the Economics of Aging (1992), this volume examines elderly population growth and government spending, life expectancy and health, saving for retirement and housing values, aging in Germany and Taiwan, and the utilization of nursing home and other long-term care. more...

Price: $90.00