Working with Toxic Older Adults


Book Description

Older adults, like all individuals, have different personalities and temperaments. According to Dr. Davenport, toxicity in older adults manifests itself in negative behaviors and attitudes that can adversely impact interactions with health professionals, caregivers, and family members. Davenport presents theories and case examples to help us understand this phenomenon and provides useful techniques for caring for toxic elders. A valuable practical guide for social workers, therapists, caregivers, and students.




Aging...Get Over It!


Book Description

Aging…Get Over It! is the first of the books Baby Boomers and GenXers need to read to gain mastery over their later years. Aging…Get Over It! eases the effort of facing the realities of aging and offers workable solutions. The lessons and exercises are divided into two categories and are further broken down into six tasks: Part l. Think Right: Healthy Mind, Satisfying Family Relationships, and Strong Faith Part 2. Do Right: Healthy Body, Financial-Legal Arrangements, and Rewarding Community and Care Planning. This is a highly practical and gutsy survival manual for everyone over 50 who intends to maintain control over the rest of their lives.




Adult Survivors of Toxic Family Members


Book Description

Cutting ties with a toxic family member is a crucial step away from a legacy of dysfunction and toward healing and happiness. This compassionate guide will help you embrace your decision with a sense of pride, validation, and faith in yourself; and provides powerful tools for creating boundaries, coping with judgment, and overcoming self-doubt. Do you have a toxic family member? Do you feel like cutting ties with this person—even as painful and scary as that may sound—would dramatically increase your well-being and improve your life? You’re not alone. Severing ties with a family member can be devastating; and cutting this toxic person out of your life may bring up feelings of guilt and uncertainty—especially if you feel judged by others regarding your decision. Fortunately, you can free yourself from this toxic family member in a healthy, responsible, and liberating way. In Adult Survivors of Toxic Family Members, psychologist and toxic-family survivor Sherrie Campbell offers effective strategies for setting strong boundaries after ending contact with a toxic family member, and provides powerful tools to help you heal from shame, self-doubt, and stigma. You’ll find the validation you need to embrace your decision with pride and acknowledgement of your self-worth. You’ll learn how to let go of negative thoughts and feelings. And finally, you’ll develop the skills needed to rediscover self-care, self-love, self-reliance, and healthy loving relationships. Whether you’re ready to sever ties with a toxic family member, or already have, this book will help guide you, every step of the way.




Learning to Be Old


Book Description

What does it mean to grow old in America today? Is 'successful aging' our responsibility? What will happen if we fail to 'grow old gracefully'? Especially for women, the onus on the aging population in the United States is growing rather than diminishing. Gender, race, and sexual orientation have been reinterpreted as socially constructed phenomena, yet aging is still seen through physically constructed lenses. The second edition of Margaret Cruikshank's Learning to Be Old helps put aging in a new light, neither romanticizing nor demonizing it. Featuring new research and analysis, expanded sections on gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender aging and critical gerontology, and an updated chapter on feminist gerontology, the second edition even more thoroughly than the first looks at the variety of different forces affecting the progress of aging. Cruikshank pays special attention to the fears and taboos, multicultural traditions, and the medicalization and politicization of natural processes that inform our understanding of age. Through it all, we learn a better way to inhabit our age whatever it is.




Productive Aging


Book Description

"Will 69 million baby boomers suddenly drop out of the workforce when they turn 65? It is difficult to imagine this generation, with its talent, education, and experience, idling away the last thirty years of life."—From the Foreword, by Robert N. Butler, M.D., The Mount Sinai Medical Center Old age has been historically thought of as a period of frailty and dependence, yet studies show that with the help of advances in health and medicine, current populations will live longer and remain healthier than previous generations. As average life expectancies rise, traditional concepts of retirement need to be reconsidered on all levels—from government policy to business practice to individual life planning. In this volume, leaders in the field of gerontology explore these changing conditions through the concept of "productive aging," which has been developed by leaders in the field to promote older adults' contributions to society in social and economic capacities. Productive Aging: Concepts and Challenges treats the implications of productive aging for the discipline of gerontology and for society in general. The first section defines the principles, historical perspectives, and conceptual frameworks for productive aging. The second section takes a disciplinary approach, treating the biomedical, psychological, sociological, and economic implications of a more capable older generation. The third section considers advances in theories of gerontology, and the fourth section suggests future directions in practice, theory, and research. Contributors: W. Andrew Achenbaum, University of Houston • Scott A. Bass, University of Maryland-Baltimore • Vern L. Bengtson, University of Southern California • James E. Birren, UCLA • Francis G. Caro, University of Massachusetts Boston • Carroll L. Estes, University of California-San Francisco • Marc Freedman, Civic Ventures (co-founder of Experience Corps) • James Hinterlong, Washington University • James S. Jackson, University of Michigan • Jane L. Mahakian, Pacific Senior Services • Harry R. Moody, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation • Nancy Morrow-Howell, Washington University • Philip Rozario, Washington University • James H. Schulz, Brandeis University • Michael Sherraden, Washington University • Alvar Svanborg, University of Illinois-Chicago and Goteburg University, Sweden • Brent A. Taylor, San Diego State University




Elders, Crime, and the Criminal Justice System


Book Description

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of interactions between older people and the criminal justice system. The editors present current research on elders in a multitude of roles, from victim and offender to attorney, defendant, witness, juror, and prisoner. Of particular interest are chapters on the psychological and medical conditions of elder prisoners, and issue around selective decarceration. Each contributor documents empirical data and identifies social, policy, and ethical implications, where applicable. Recommended for gerontologists, sociologists, social workers, and professionals in the legal and criminal justice fields.




Chronic Hazards Labeling Legislation


Book Description




The Little Book of Restorative Justice for Older Adults


Book Description

Exploring Restorative Justice Practices as a Compelling Response to the Challenges of an Aging Population As our global population ages, conflicts and difficult conversations emerge. How will older adults decide who will make end-of-life health and financial decisions for them? When will dad need to move out of his home and into long-term care? We can’t have mom living with us anymore because it’s just too hard. Why are my children fighting over where I will live? Why is my son taking money from me? These are challenging scenarios that ever-increasing numbers of people are facing. Sometimes these difficulties are discussed in catastrophic terms: Untenable health-care costs Exhausted pension funds Crises in home-care and long-term housing And other concerns Certainly, there are some reasons to worry; however, the challenges facing older adults can be an opportunity for positive change. The Little Book of Restorative Justice for Older Adults is about providing safe and respectful processes to assist in resolving conflict and addressing abuse involving older adults, families, caregivers, and communities. Authors Julie Friesen and Wendy Meek explore ideas to help connect and support people, building on the strengths and capacities of older adults and their families, in order to strengthen communities. Restorative justice dialogues help older adults and their families talk constructively and safely to find ways to move forward together.




Helping the Difficult Library Patron


Book Description

This insightful book shows you how to deal with an issue as old as the library profession: interacting with problem patrons. It looks at this fact of life that affects almost every facet of library work and provides practical solutions--some developed within the field and some borrowed from other professions--that will improve reference services for those you serve and make the work of your library staff less stressful, more productive, and increasingly meaningful. Helping the Difficult Library Patron: New Approaches to Examining and Resolving a Long-Standing and Ongoing Problem examines: the nature of the problem from historical and demographic perspectives ways of dealing with the problem in academic and public libraries competency-based training techniques that will empower your frontline staff the impact of new technologies such as cellular phones and the Internet and ways of dealing with the new breeds of difficult patrons that come with them solutions from our colleagues what we can learn from the perspectives of others--psychotherapists, businesspeople, and corporate managers--you even get a Zen Buddhist viewpoint! effective ways to utilize community resources such as campus and local police and much, much more! Nowhere in the library literature have so many practitioners and educators combined their efforts to examine and provide solutions to this ageless problem. Library administrators, staff, and educators will find Helping the Difficult Library Patron a matchless resource!




Helping the Difficult Library Patron


Book Description

A problem patron is not one with difficult requests or obscure interests, but one who displays behavior that is deemed destructive, criminal, bothersome, offensive, or otherwise inappropriate. Librarians look at the nature of the problem in academic and public libraries, the impact of such technologies as the Internet and cell phones, and solutions from other professions as well as from the experience of librarians.




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