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.
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.
The Committee on National Statistics and the Committee on Population, at the request of the NIA, convened a workshop in March 1996 to discuss data on the aging population that address the emerging and important social, economic, and health conditions of the older population. The purposes of the workshop were to identify how the population at older ages in the next few decades will differ from the older population today, to understand the underlying causes of those changes, to anticipate future problems and policy issues, and to suggest future needs for data for research in these areas. The scope of the workshop was broader than that of the 1988 CNSTAT report, including not only data on health and long-term care, but also actuarial, economic, demographic, housing, and epidemiological data needs for informing public policy.
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.
"Recommended."--CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries "Coughlin and DíAmbrosioís edited volume is a welcome contribution to highlighting this issue for gerontologists. The collection is an informative and useful reference for students, researchers, practitioners, planners, and policy analysts"--The Gerontologist This solution-focused volume fills a gap in the literature by addressing the key issues around mobility and transportation for the aging Baby Boomer generation--issues that will be significantly different than those of previous generations of older adults. This new generation, many of whom will continue to work past the traditional retirement age and expect to pursue an active lifestyle, may have to confront new transportation technology, the need to use public transportation, and ways to continue driving safely as their eyesight fades and reaction time slows down. This volume examines many of the issues faced by policymakers, transportation officials, vehicle manufacturers, health and human services professionals, and aging adults themselves as the largest generation prepares to enter late adulthood. The volume's editors are both at the MIT AgeLab, whose multi-disciplinary team designs, develops and deploys innovations to enhance quality of life for aging populations. Through the contributions of a diverse group of theorists and practitioners, including recommendations from the National Older Driver Safety Advisory Council, a collaboration between AARP's Driver Safety Program and the MIT AgeLab, the book discusses several key topics pertinent to Aging America and transportation. Among them are the changing demographics of the population, how this generation's lifestyle choices affect mobility, technology trends in private vehicles, changes in the infrastructure and transportation system, the "new" older driver, and issues of safety and education among older drivers. This book also explores practical solutions and strategies, such as new transportation options and innovations that will significantly impact the future of mobility for older adults, for keeping these seniors active and mobile well into their later years. Key Features: Focuses on the unique mobility needs of the aging Baby Boomer generation Provides practical solutions and strategies for policy changes to enhance the mobility of older adults Examines issues faced by policymakers, transportation officials, vehicle manufacturers, health and human services professionals, and aging adults Discusses strategies for updating the infrastructure and transportation system, driving safety education for older drivers, and trends in private vehicle innovations
Essays and interviews by Julie Winokur. It's estimated that by the middle of this century the senior citizen population of America will outnumber the population of young people for the first time in history. Chronicling this unprecedented OAP-boom, Aging in America looks at the changes confronting the States as old-age goes mainstream. Originating as an award-winning story in the New York Times Magazine, Kashi and Winokur's project soon took them all round America as they celebrated the diverse lives of the elderly.
Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction A New York Times Bestseller Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Winner of the WSU AOS Bonner Book Award Winner of the 2022 At Home With Growing Older Impact Award As revelatory as Atul Gawande's Being Mortal, physician and award-winning author Louise Aronson's Elderhood is an essential, empathetic look at a vital but often disparaged stage of life. For more than 5,000 years, "old" has been defined as beginning between the ages of 60 and 70. That means most people alive today will spend more years in elderhood than in childhood, and many will be elders for 40 years or more. Yet at the very moment that humans are living longer than ever before, we've made old age into a disease, a condition to be dreaded, denigrated, neglected, and denied. Reminiscent of Oliver Sacks, noted Harvard-trained geriatrician Louise Aronson uses stories from her quarter century of caring for patients, and draws from history, science, literature, popular culture, and her own life to weave a vision of old age that's neither nightmare nor utopian fantasy--a vision full of joy, wonder, frustration, outrage, and hope about aging, medicine, and humanity itself. Elderhood is for anyone who is, in the author's own words, "an aging, i.e., still-breathing human being."
Since the late 1970s when Congressman Claude Pepper held widely publicized hearings on the mistreatment of the elderly, policy makers and practitioners have sought ways to protect older Americans from physical, psychological, and financial abuse. Yet, during the last 20 years fewer than 50 articles have addressed the shameful problem that abusersâ€"and sometimes the abused themselvesâ€"want to conceal. Elder Mistreatment in an Aging America takes a giant step toward broadening our understanding of the mistreatment of the elderly and recommends specific research and funding strategies that can be used to deepen it. The book includes a discussion of the conceptual, methodological, and logistical issues needed to create a solid research base as well as the ethical concerns that must be considered when working with older subjects. It also looks at problems in determination of a report's reliability and the role of physicians, EMTs, and others who are among the first to recognize situations of mistreatment. Elder Mistreatment in an Aging America will be of interest to anyone concerned about the elderly and ways to intervene when abuse is suspected, including family members, caregivers, and advocates for the elderly. It will also be of interest to researchers, research sponsors, and policy makers who need to know how to advance our knowledge of this problem.
"The forces driving the first decades of the 21st century--globalization, technology, and unprecedented wealth mixed with jarring economic instability--are pushing the day of retirement later and later in life. The era of the aging worker is here. From the rice paddies of Japan to the heart of the American rust-belt, veteran international correspondent Joseph Coleman takes readers inside the lives of aging workers, exploring the factories, offices, and fields where they toil and the societies in which they live, giving the reader a front-row seat to the global older worker revolution. Profiles of individuals bring to life Coleman's exploration of how the United States--along with many countries around the world--deal with the rise of aging workforces. Throughout these stories, the author gives advice on how societies can best benefit from and assist their increasingly older population. Readers will come to know: --Michel Wattree, a retired French trucker who has found a second life as an elementary school bus driver and still nurses dreams of driving America's storied Route 66. --The aging crew of Japan's Yamashita Kogyosho, where for half a century they have crafted the world's fastest trains with their bare hands and hammers, exemplifies Japan's adaptive employment strategies that have helped the country deal with one of the oldest demographic compositions in the world. --Rita Hall, an unemployed hospital worker from Akron, Ohio, who hopes that a job training program will save her from spending the rest of her golden years in poverty-a fear shared by many who will far outlive their retirement savings. Amidst the stories of how these works are working hard to adapt, Unfinished Work probes the struggles of companies either unable or unwilling to accommodate the aging of their workforces and the quandaries of governments and policymakers eager to control pension pay-outs to retiring boomers, yet unsure how to keep them on the job. What emerges is a compassionate but clear-eyed portrait of a world in themidst of a slow-motion aging revolution that will have vast consequences for present and coming generations"--
The Journey of Life envisions growing up and growing old as a voyage down a river flowing inexorably to the sea. With this image of the human life cycle, the author explores the historical shoreline of later life, charting its cultural forms and sounding their depths. The result is both a cultural history of aging and a contribution to public dialogue about the meaning and significance of later life. The core of the book shows how central texts and images of Northern.
