Edited by Nieli Langer and Terry Tirrito
College of Social Work, University of South Carolina,
Columbia, South Carolina, United States
University of America Press: New York, New
York
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Programs and Services for Older Adults: A National and International
Focus
By Terry Tirrito
Chapter Two
Strategies for Teaching Aging Social Welfare Problems and
Policies
By Julie Miller-Cribbs
Chapter Three
Teaching the Adult Learner about Mental Health Issues in Aging
By Vicki Murdock
Chapter Four
Families and Aging: Alzheimer's Disease Spousal Caregiver
Support Group
By Gil Choi
Chapter Five
An Approach to Teaching Spirituality for Practice with the
Older Adult
By Larry P. Ortiz and Melissa B. Littlefield
Chapter Six
Education about Dying, Death, Grief and Loss: Principles and
Strategies
By Kenneth J. Doka
Chapter Seven
Act III: Maximizing Choices in Retirement
By Nieli Langer
Chapter Eight
Senior Volunteers: Staying Connected with the Community
By Nina Dubler Katz
Chapter Nine
Elder Abuse: Policy and Training for Law Enforcement Personnel
By Nieli Langer and Tan Kirby Davis
Chapter Ten
Gericare Specialist: An Educational Response to the Elder
Home Care Crisis
By Jane M. Cardea, Jane F. McGarrahan and Bernice C. Brennan
Introduction
Aging Education: Teaching and Practice Strategies is a text
that attempts to meet the challenges of providing a teaching
tool for the adult educator who teachers and trains students
and care providers of the aging population in all the various
instructional programs (gerontology/geriatrics degrees) and
non-credit workshops currently offered in different settings
(hospitals, nursing homes, professional associations, in-service
training, etc.). Instruction is the best means for bringing
about changes in the way we improve provision and distribution
of services to the elderly. Educators need to clearly specify
the outcomes or objectives they intend their instruction to
accomplish and select and arrange learning experiences that
will enhance realization of these objectives. Gerontology
instructors and trainers can adapt the methodologies and learning
experiences provided in the text to revise stereotypical attitudes,
update skills, and gain current information about specific
topics in the field of aging studies.
Each chapter in the text addresses a specific topic relevant
to the study of the aging population. Each provides state-of-the-art
content and resources for instructors in addition to education
strategies applicable to the topic. Most of the educational
modalities are easily adapted to use with other topics. Each
of the chapters is followed by a commentary by the editors
who have offered their own professional interpretation of
the topic and/or experiential learning experiences.
Chapter One
Home health and community care services are important components
of a comprehensive long-term care system. Social workers,
geriatric nurses, geriatricians, geropsychiatrists, case managers,
and nutritionists are some of the professional practitioners
who serve older adults by utilizing the informal and formal
support networks to help many older people remain in their
own homes and communities. The activities and strategies described
in this chapter will support the efforts of educators and
practitioners to develop and enhance skills and attitudes
that meet the needs of individuals for personal freedom and
self-expression while balancing the goals of informal and
formal institutions to provide care.
Chapter Two
This chapter explores some of the major problems faced by
older persons in the areas of finance, health care, and independent
living, and describes policies that address these areas. The
multiple teaching strategies are applicable to various sites
and levels of service and address the composition and needs
of a culturally diverse older population.
Chapter Three
The chapter focuses on training professionals to recognize
and help older adults to come to terms with and incorporate
age-related changes into how they view themselves and their
roles in the world. It provides a discussion of the implications
of those mental health problems requiring comprehensive assessment
to determine the older person's service needs. Students will
learn to be proficient in the use and value of different assessment
tools. Placing students in the client's role may sensitize
them to the discomfort elders may feel when they are the focus
of the interview. This format is effective in building competent
interview skills and learning appropriate ways of asking questions
in different cultural settings. The chapter provides numerous
strategies that can be revised to accommodate many levels
and learning needs.
Chapter Four
Although changes have occurred in the American family, the
family is the basic support system for most older Americans.
The type of family support an older person receives depends
to a great extent on his/her family situation - whether married,
widowed, separated, divorced, never married, has living children,
is living alone, living with adult children, or living with
other relatives. The chapter explores the physical and emotional
challenges faced by spouses who provide care to their partners
suffering from Alzheimer's disease. An educational intervention
model is presented that provides for the behavioral and emotional
needs of care providers.
Chapter Five
Spiritual well-being is the affirmation of life in a relationship
with God, self, community, and environment that nurtures and
celebrates wholeness. From this perspective people can be
spiritual without being religious. The spiritual dimensions
of health have been examined and some practitioners view spiritual
well-being as very important to an older person's physical
and mental health. As an increasing number of older adults
live longer lives, there has been increased interest in including
spirituality in the bio-psycho-social model of assessment
and treatment of the problems they encounter. This chapter
reviews terms relating to the concept of spirituality and
offers a spirituality mini-assessment protocol that may be
used by social service and health care providers who work
with older adults. This type of assessment protocol can be
used to help older adults identify their individual sources
of spirituality that empower them to provide meaningful interpretations
of their lives.
Chapter Six
As human beings we grieve our own personal losses. As professionals
working in social service/health care positions, we encounter
terminally ill patients and their families experiencing a
variety of emotions and feelings during the progression of
an illness and impending loss. The chapter provides sensitively
designed educational strategies designed to help students
and practitioners reach a conscious awareness of thoughts,
feelings, attitudes, and values associated with dying, death,
grief, and loss.
Chapter Seven
The concept of retirement as we've known it is obsolete.
Across the nation, millions of older active Americans are
retiring old notions of what it means to be retired. The combined
effect of the senior boom and the birth dearth in America
is creating a senior population of retirees who, with the
gift of longevity and the added years it brings, are rethinking
and revitalizing their lives. They are reinventing retirement
- trying new careers, launching new businesses, volunteering,
and returning to school while simultaneously taking stock
of their social, financial, and health care needs. This chapter
is primarily concerned with how the retirement counselor can
address the major concerns facing older adults in stages of
pre-retirement and retirement.
Chapter Eight
Retired elders are often discussed as a great sea of untapped
volunteers. Studies have shown that older volunteers can be
counted on to perform will on an ongoing basis. However, how
to motivate volunteers who sincerely wish to commit to either
rigid or flexible schedules of volunteer activities will require
the types of adult learning strategies that are described
in this chapter.
Chapter Nine
Law enforcement and criminal justice professionals need to
be key players in every community's effort to prevent and
address elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation. But in order
for law enforcement and criminal justice professionals to
coordinate their efforts, the elder abuse network needs to
partner with them to develop appropriate training and technical
assistance. This chapter provides resources and strategies
that are currently in place to maximize law enforcement participation
in these efforts.
Chapter Ten
This chapter describes the strategies for training marginally
employable individuals, particularly disenfranchised homemakers
and minority or economically disadvantaged women, as providers
of professional in-home care of medically-frail or physically/mentally
challenged elder clients unable to manage independent living
activities. Competencies in communication, assessment, observation,
personal care, and management skills enable these individuals
to function as both a companion and a caregiver to an older
person living at home. The systematic creation of a new paraprofessional
health care provider will infuse the current inadequate cadre
of personnel willing and able to provide services to an ever-growing
number of older adults.
Conclusion
To the extent that this book advances teachers', students',
and practitioners' capacity to understand and serve the elderly
by providing imaginative and thought-provoking teaching and
practice strategies for adult learners, we believe that we
may contribute to the quality of life and care of older persons.
Aging patients and clients can reap the benefit from professionals
who have had teaching experiences that encourage personal
change and offer opportunities to develop cognitive abilities
and skills useful in problem solving situations relevant to
older adult needs.
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