Product Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, published by Western Michigan University, School of Social Work on September 1, 2002. The length of the article is 504 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Nancy Morrow-Howell, James Hinterlong and Michael Sherraden (Eds.), Productive Aging: Concepts and Challenges. (book review)
Publication: Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare (Refereed)
Date: September 1, 2002
Publisher: Western Michigan University, School of Social Work
Volume: 29Issue: 3Page: 218(2)

Article Type: Book Review

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Product Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, published by Western Michigan University, School of Social Work on March 1, 2005. The length of the article is 2985 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Shifting identity: process and change in identity of aging Mexican-American males.
Author: Gary L. Villereal
Publication: Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 2005
Publisher: Western Michigan University, School of Social Work
Volume: 32Issue: 1Page: 33(9)

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Product Description
"A compact reference, filled with down-to-earth help for aging baby boomers planning ahead for their own retirement years or for their elderly parents who are already there."
--Publishers Weekly

"Informative, comprehensive, and clearly written, this genuinely practical guide is the work of experts in a wide variety of fields who all emphasize that individuals should take substantial roles in dealing with their own aging. . . .Up-to-date lists of print and electronic resources add much more information."
--Booklist

One of the most daunting aspects of growing older is the torrent of advice we face about maintaining our physical health and our mental acuity. Entire books have been written on how to manage finances, how to avoid falls, how to care for aging parents. Yet, too often, the advice offered is overwhelmingly complicated or diffuse and difficult to locate precisely when it is needed most.

Now, at last, there exists a single, accessible manual that covers every aspect of getting older. The Practical Guide to Aging answers the questions about aging which concern us all. Experts in their respective fields discuss topics such as the normal processes of aging, how laws affect the elderly, what forms of exercise are most beneficial at various stages of life, family issues, and more. Informative charts and graphs supplement the concise, accessible chapters, which are followed by a comprehensive listing of major national and regional organizations serving the elderly.

Ideal as an upbeat, forward-looking gift or as a personal resource, The Practical Guide to Aging is a user-friendly book for young and old, a helpful guide regardless of age or circumstance. ... Read more

Product Description
This is the first book in the series of Age Concern Institute of Gerontology (ACIOG) at King's College London. It demonstrates the scope and challenge of gerontological inquiry and understanding. The subjects in this text range over basic biology, practical physiology, geriatric and community medicine, nursing studies, the history of social policy, social care practice, demography, the analysis of social statistics and educational theory. The last three chapters attempt to point to the way ahead and include discussions of a number of priority research and policy questions. ... Read more

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"Retirement is defined as the termination of gainful work that is, of activities one of whose aims is that of obtaining wealth, profit or other social rewards." With this definition, Dr Shenk proceeds with her study of retirement and its effects on a specific ethnic community within the United States, the Lebanese-Americans. While traditional sociocultural attitudes toward aging and the elderly are positive and sympathetic among Lebanese, these attitudes are not necessarily the views of the larger, non-ethnic American population - a situation already setting up contraries in a delicate area. The Lebanese-American, for example, is unhappy with the income social Security payments provide upon retirement in the US: the money is not adequate to support the quality of life these people had expected. For analytic purposes, this study is divided into four phases: (1) preparation and anticipation; (2) the actual moment of withdrawal from the active labour force; (3) initial adjustment to the new way of life; and (4) the patterned, established retirement itself.An important element in all of this is the changing patterns within the host community - the US - where retirement does not necessarily mean the end of useful activities, that the new retiree may very well elect to continue in some active, even gainful activity. Leisure, care of the elderly, mobility, and aging and retirement of women are also discussed - all of this supported by a careful description of the Lebanese in history and as emigrants to America. ... Read more

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While much of the current literature on the economic consequences of an aging population focuses on the negative aspects, this enlightening book argues that seniors can bring significant benefits - such as vitality and competitiveness - to an urban economy.

The authors illustrate the ways an aging population can have a positive impact on urban centers, including the move by large numbers of seniors from the suburbs to the city, where their disproportionate consumption of education and the arts helps rejuvenate city centers. Given this, the authors conclude that a large and active senior population has the potential to assist a city in the achievement of its strategic economic objectives. The book includes analyses of the effects of population aging on best practices in 40 cities in the US and EU, with surprising results, as well as interviews with city officials and leaders.

Academics, researchers and public officials in the areas of urban development, public policy and aging will find much in this original approach to interest and provoke debate. ... Read more

Product Description
Part I Exploring the World of Adulthood 1 Adult Development and Aging in a Changing World 2 Metatheoretical Perspectives and Research Methods Part II The Worlds of Body and Mind 3 Longevity and Physiological Aging 4 Health and Body Systems 5 Memory 6 Intelligence and Creativity 7 Mature Thought, Wisdom. ... Read more

Product Description
The population aging trend, or "greying of the population" as it has been called, has at times been described as a "problem," a "crisis," or more kindly, a "challenge," yet it is also true that the crisis rhetoric has become more moderate and is balanced by a new emerging view that emphasizes the advantages and opportunities of population aging along with the difficulties. Demography, economics, health and health care, government programs, family and community involvement, and the social constructs of aging are studied using the latest facts and statistics, building upon research to date. The third edition of Aging in Alberta challenges, scrutinizes, and lays bare the assumptions and implications of the rhetoric of population aging. ... Read more

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Americans are living longer than ever before. For many, though, these extra years have become a bitter gift, marred by dementia, disability, and loss of independence. "Extending Life, Enhancing Life" sets the course toward practical solutions to these problems by specifying 15 research priorities in five key areas of investigation: basic biomedicine - to understand the fundamental processes of aging; clinical - to intervene against common disabilities and maladies of older persons; behavioural and social - to build on past successes with behavioural and social interventions; health services delivery - to seek answers to the troubling issues of insufficient delivery of health care in the face of increasing health care costs; and biomedical ethics - to clarify underlying ethical guidelines about life and death decisions. Most important, the volume firmly establishes the connection between research and its beneficial results for the quality of life for older persons. ... Read more

Product Description
This second volume in the "Institute of Medicine's" series on America's Aging explores the various productive roles that the growing number of elderly individuals can play in society through volunteer work. Some of the issues addressed include the main incentives and impediments to elderly volunteerism, the various forms of unpaid productive work and how they affect the health and well-being of the volunteer, and the recruitment of elderly volunteers that is done by various organizations. For policymakers, economists, sociologists, gerontologists, and social services agencies, this is an indispensable resource for the future. ... Read more

Product Description
You can't teach an old dog new tricks. Oh, no? This is one of the nine common myths about aging debunked by Dr Powell in his new book. Succinct and conversational, the book includes anecdotes and examples from real life and personal experience alongside research findings and clinical observations. Knowing the truth about aging, says the author, can help us manage the process better and remain physically, mentally and socially active for many more years to come. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Highly Recommended for Readers in Their 30's and 40's
This book does an excellent job of showing people how to age well.It's best point is made on the very last page, when it points out, "The odds are overwhelming that we will be 100 percent unsuccessful at those things we never attempt."

The author spends a chapter each disproving the following rumors: 1) Aging is Boring Subject, 2) All Old People Are Pretty Much the Same, 3) An Unsound Body Equals an Unsound Mind, 4) Memory is the First Thing to Go, 5) Use It or Lose It, 6) Old Dogs Can't Learn New Tricks, 7) Old People Are Isolated and Lonely,8) Old People Are Depresses, and Have Every Right to Be, and 9) Wisdom Requires Being Smart and Elderly.

The author is a director of aging research at Harvard University, and he has written this book primarily for younger adults (30's and 40's) to plan for optimal aging, as well as for adults up into their 60's, 70's, and 80's.

One of the MOST important points he makes is that blood pressure IN YOUNG ADULTHOOD (especially in the 30's and 40's) should be CAREFULLY MONITORED each year.A jump of diastolic pressure of 10 points during this time period is a danger signal.Most of the non-Alzheimer's adults who go downhill mentally are those who have had heart or circulatory problems, so one of his biggest points in the book is to do everything you can to avoid this particular problem, especially when you are YOUNG (in your 30's and 40's).

The only reason I have rated the book four stars instead of five is that some of the information he discusses was self-evident to me, and he did not include a chapter on how to maximize aging specifically for people who are already in poor health, or already frail in their 50's or 60's, such as having to be in a wheelchair, or use a walker, even at a relatively young age.

A wonderfully breezy, upbeat, ground-breaking book
Powell's style is easy to follow.His points are unusual in that they break some of the long-held notions of "successful aging". What's more, he relies on solid data to back up his claims.Thus,this is not as"new age" book along the lines of a Deepak Chopra book.Powellis much more genuine and believable.

Readable and provides ideas I now use for daily living
This fascinating book provides ideas which I now include in my dailyliving. I've given copies to my 86 year old mother and my late mid-lifecontemporaries.

The author uses his personal experiences and everydayexamples to make research results clear and understandable, in a veryreadable book. I particularly like the goal of the subtitle "Maximizing theQuality of Later Life,"

When I lend my copy to friends who do not liketo even think about aging (some with multiple 39th birthdays), I suggestthey read the 14 pages of the Introduction and the 16 pages of the lastchapter "Summing Up: Guidelines For Optimal Aging." This gives them a quickoverview and ideas for what to do now.

For me, this is a "must read" foranyone who is past midlife and trying to "age optimally, or for those whodeal with us. ... Read more