Elder Care

Multidisciplinary in its presentation, Primary Care for the Older Adult is written for professionals and examines the common conditions and problems faced by older people. The book covers clinical, social, ethical and legal aspects of such care.

This book provides a unique analysis of provider-, environment-, client-, and societal-based obstacles to the empowerment of frail elderly persons in a philosophical framework of social values, as well as an applied framework wherein a variety of international case studies by a distinguished board of contributors provide concrete examples of the feasibility of achieving real empowerment.

Leutz and his colleagues address a critical gap in health-care services for the elderly who live in the nation's communities. They provide practical guidance for implementing a community-based program of care and present new analyses of the range of needs among the frail aged. The book shows that planners and providers ought to consider differences in gender, culture, and individual status when determining health care needs. The authors carefully evaluate the range of needs, including demographics, gender and cultural differences, public and responses, and the effectiveness of Medicare and Medicaid.

This volume examines policies and programs of compensation for family caregivers of the disabled elderly from a broad analytical perspective, weighing current policies of home care services against principles of access, equity, quality, and funding of long-term care. The authors focus on programs and policies that already exist which could be adjusted to include families and to promote support of family caregiving. In assessing the potential of broad implementation of wages for caring, they contend that if implemented appropriately, family compensation may offer benefits not available through any other kind of service system.

One of the central issues within feminist economics is unpaid work. There is a strong feeling that conventional economics fails to properly measure the benefits to society of looking after a household and caring for our families. This title examines issues relating to this subject.

Because long-term aging has created a "new generation" of older adults, some new issues are emerging which need to be addressed from an ethical perspective--elder abuse, physician assisted suicide, dementia, intergenerational equity, guardianship, and living wills. Johnson offers both a resource on ethics and aging with a historical perspective and policy recommendations for the future with an ethical emphasis.

Despite the rapid aging of the population and the tremendous growth in ethnic and racial diversity among the elderly in our society, empirical studies on long-term care needs and service use of minority elders have been lacking. Based on two national datasets, this is the first comprehensive analysis of long-term care needs, patterns, and determinants in-home, community-based, and nursing home service utilization and informal support among African American and Hispanic elders, as compared to those of their non-Hispanic White counterparts. The authors also compare caregiver burden within the three groups and present recommendations for ethnic-sensitive long-term care policy and practice for minority elders.