Successful Aging as a Contemporary Obsession PDF Download

Author: Sarah Lamb
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813585368
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
In recent decades, the North American public has pursued an inspirational vision of successful aging—striving through medical technique and individual effort to eradicate the declines, vulnerabilities, and dependencies previously commonly associated with old age. On the face of it, this bold new vision of successful, healthy, and active aging is highly appealing. But it also rests on a deep cultural discomfort with aging and being old. The contributors to Successful Aging as a Contemporary Obsession explore how the successful aging movement is playing out across five continents. Their chapters investigate a variety of people, including Catholic nuns in the United States; Hindu ashram dwellers; older American women seeking plastic surgery; aging African-American lesbians and gay men in the District of Columbia; Chicago home health care workers and their aging clients; Mexican men foregoing Viagra; dementia and Alzheimer sufferers in the United States and Brazil; and aging policies in Denmark, Poland, India, China, Japan, and Uganda. This book offers a fresh look at a major cultural and public health movement of our time, questioning what has become for many a taken-for-granted goal—aging in a way that almost denies aging itself.

Author: John Wallis Rowe
Publisher: Dell
ISBN:
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
"The results of the MacArthur Foundation Study of Aging in America, which show how to maintain optimum physical and mental strength throughout later life."--Jacket.

Author: Ruby Hart Neuhaus
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Author: Jessica C. Robbins
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 1978813988
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
Active aging programs that encourage older adults to practice health- promoting behaviors are proliferating worldwide. In Poland, the meanings and ideals of these programs have become caught up in the sociocultural and political-economic changes that have occurred during the lifetimes of the oldest generations—most visibly, the transition from socialism to capitalism. Yet practices of active aging resonate with older forms of activity in late life in ways that exceed these narratives of progress. Moreover, some older Poles come to live valued, meaningful lives in old age despite the threats to respect and dignity posed by illness and debility. Through intimate portrayals of a wide range of experiences of aging in Poland, Jessica C. Robbins shows that everyday practices of remembering and relatedness shape how older Poles come to be seen by themselves and by others as living worthy, valued lives.

Author: Elana D. Buch
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479807176
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 275

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Book Description
"Elana D. Buch's "Inequalities of Aging: Paradoxes of Independence in American Home Care" focuses on the topic of American home care and explores various contradictions and points of tension within the industry. It also raises awareness of the problematic inequality that exists in the American home care industry and argues for the creation of a more sustainable system."--

Author: Clemens Tesch-Römer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192897535
Category : Gerontology
Languages : en
Pages : 129

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Book Description
This book argues that a narrow policy on successful ageing excludes a large portion of ageing individuals from the quest for a good life in old age. It explores various models defining successful ageing and argues that successful ageing in guiding policy will profit by following a pluralistic and holistic view.

Author: John Wallis Rowe
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780051322573
Category : Aging
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description

Author: Claudine G. Wirths
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135150844X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
Growing old - what is it like? What are the main problems of the aging? Lack of fulfillment in their work and life? Loneliness? Anxiety about sickness and disability? Fear of death? This well-documented, theoretically systematic, and vivid account of the process of aging provides highly enlightening answers and dispels once and for all many of the myths surrounding the close to 20 million Americans who are over sixty-five. Building upon the results of extensive interviews, the authors have established the existence of six styles and have concluded that a successful transition to old age can be achieved through any of them. They have also developed a definition of success, which has practical implications, since it deals with the extent to which an individual contributes or is a burden to the lives of those around him. The combined analysis of style and success results in a better understanding of individual differences in aging. The reader comes to know and understand the subjects as if he had worked with them in person. The wealth of detail the case histories contain permits scholars and students to judge for themselves the validity of the authors' findings. Derived from this unusually rich body of material, the authors' conclusions and recommendations are invaluable to all concerned with the study, the treatment, and the counseling of the aged. "Lives Through the Years" is a pioneering volume of social inquiry and interpretation, which marks a major scientific advance in its field, opens up new horizons for fruitful research, and offers a stimulating and authoritative portrayal of one of the most important problems of our society.

Author: Sue E. Levkoff
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
With advances in medicine and preventive healthcare measures, more and more Americans are living to advanced old age while remaining productive and experiencing relatively good health and vitality. Unfortunately, a significant number of the elderly still succumb to various serious maladies, many of them preventable or treatable, whether physical or psychological. This excellent interdisciplinary collection of articles on aging, by a wide range of experts, is designed to make available to the general public the best recent research on the many facets of successful aging. Divided into four main parts, the contributors discuss the psychological, sociological, and biomedical aspects of aging and conclude with a focus on service provisions for the elderly. Among the specific issues discussed are the role of negative life events in late-life adaptation, spiritual needs of those near the end of life, emotional health and maturity, family relational ethics and caregiving, planning and consequences of retirement, elder abuse, overmedication, alcohol abuse, nutritional recommendations, physical activity, physician-patient communication, exemplary services in the community, and volunteerism. By combining multiple perspectives this accessible collection develops an overall picture of the needs of the aging individual and offers successful approaches to treating the diverse problems of later years.

Author: Britteny M. Howell
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 0813072573
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
An in-depth and wide-ranging approach to the study of older adults in society Taking a holistic approach to the study of aging, this volume uses biological, archaeological, medical, and cultural perspectives to explore how older adults have functioned in societies around the globe and throughout human history. As the world’s population over 65 years of age continues to increase, this wide-ranging approach fills a growing need for both academics and service professionals in gerontology, geriatrics, and related fields. Case studies from the United States, Tibet, Turkey, China, Nigeria, and Mexico provide examples of the ways age-related changes are influenced by environmental, genetic, sociocultural, and political-economic variables. Taken together, they help explain how the experience of aging varies across time and space. These contributions from noted anthropological scholars examine evolutionary and biological understandings of human aging, the roles of elders in various societies, issues of gender and ageism, and the role of chronic illness and “successful aging” among older adults. This volume highlights how an anthropology of aging can illustrate how older adults adapt to shifting life circumstances and environments, including changes to the ways in which individuals and families care for them. The research in Anthropological Perspectives on Aging can also help researchers, students, and practitioners reach across disciplines to address age discrimination and help improve health outcomes throughout the life course.