Nursing Homes

Although residential care and assisted living for older adults has expanded rapidly in recent decades, it has done so in a policy environment beset by confusion or conflicting purposes. Baggett traces many of the current problems to insufficient knowledge of the population these policies are designed to serve. In her examination of the frequently neglected interface between policy and people, she provides a comprehensive review of current federal and state policies, a detailed case study of a state residential care program, and an analysis of the needs and characteristics of residential care users. The book links the larger policy issues with an in-depth analysis of residents served and actual services provided.

This book's main goal is to examine the concept of residential care from a psychological perspective. The chapter authors espouse a psychological approach to long-term residential care and an effort is made throughout the text to present a model of care that encompasses the whole individual. Since psychologists are being increasingly asked to provide consultation to long-term residential care facilities, the need for psychologically-based care models has become apparent. This text offers assistance in developing and maintaining residential care environments that maximize quality of life and personal well-being in the presence of declining physical and emotional resources that are associated with the vicissitudes of living into advanced aging. Geriatric Residential Care is divided into four parts. Part I addresses psychological and social issues facing the frail elderly who are candidates for, or are living in residential care settings. Part II addresses issues in the assessment of individuals in residential care. Part III highlights the design and execution of intervention strategies in residential care. Part IV addresses how organizational aspects of residential care contexts can optimize the quality and meaningfulness of care.

President Bush's "1000 points of light," with its deemphasis on federal services flames this decade's debate over the effectiveness of public versus private services. Does the private sector provide better services more efficiently than the public sector? Captive Populations examines this debate by comparing for-profit, nonprofit, and government service delivery for four dependent population groups. Focus is placed on services provided to these groups: education and child care, health-care systems, criminal justice services, and long-term care for the elderly.

Public inquiries and court cases concerning institutional abuse in a range of settings have generated considerable media interest in the field of institutional abuse, highlighting the need for preventive strategies and appropriate responses to this form of abuse. Letting In the Light brings together a number of different research studies and accounts of institutional abuse from leading academics and researchers. Contributors examine four significant areas: the institutional abuse of children, of adults with mental health problems, of adults with learning difficulties, and of older people. Each section includes a chapter on users' experiences of abuse and their views on how to prevent institutional abuse and address the needs of survivors.