Aging America: Coping with Loss, Dying and Death in Later Life
$19.95
America is aging at a rapid rate with 10,000 people in the U.S. turning 65 every day. By 2040, Medicare is expected to include 80 million enrollees. Advanced age can bring a range of losses from a spouse or partner to independence and identity. Along with experiencing multiple losses, older people are more likely to suffer from multiple chronic conditions requiring complex medical care and raising potential ethical issues at the end of life.
Aging America: Coping with Loss, Dying, and Death in Later Life, examines ways that mental health professionals, healthcare providers, and the wider community can support the growing number of aging Americans through these losses. Chapters include discussions of the dying experience in later life, including coping with dementia, accessing hospice, suicide, and the reality of institutional care; specific losses such as the death of a spouse or an adult child; and factors that may influence grief, such as diversity and culture.
In her foreword, Marian Grant, Senior Regulatory Advisor, C-TAC, writes, “This book helps to outline the likely realities older adults will face in the next years and provides valuable information on how to maximize the opportunities of aging while supporting people as they grow older and experience grief and loss.” The book is part of the Living with Grief® series and is appropriate for clinicians and others working with the dying and bereaved.
Table of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Marian Grant
PART I: DEATH IN LATER LIFE—FACING THE BABY BOOM
1. Death in Life: A Developmental Perspective on Loss in Later Life – Kenneth J. Doka
2. Practice Tips: Strategies for Assisting Older Individuals in Finding Meaning – Kenneth J. Doka
3. Diversity and Grief: Losses in Life Contexts – Brian de Vries
4. Aging: Redeeming the Destiny We Were Born to Fulfill – Deborah Grassman
5. Ethical Issues Facing Older Adults – David M. Price
PART II: DYING IN LATER LIFE
6. The Slow Death of Dementia – Katherine P. Supiano
7. Practice Tips: Supporting Elderly Veterans at the End of Life – Deborah Grassman
8. The Hospice Connection: Helping Elders Access Hospice Care – Samira K. Beckwith
9. Dying in Institutional Care – Eileen R. Chichin
PART III: GRIEF IN LATER LIFE
10. Surviving the Death of a Spouse: The Impact on Widows and Widowers – Howard Robin Winokuer
11. Voices: A Spouse’s Death – Ced Currin
12. An Unexpected Loss: The Loss of an Adult Child – Evgenia Milman and Robert A. Neimeyer
13. Voices: In Memory of my Daughter and the Platitudes I Hate – Myra MacPherson
14. Disenfranchised Grief in Later Life – Kenneth J. Doka
15. Voices: Turning Trauma, Grief, and Pain into Positive Action – Dana and Linda O’Brien
16. Grieving Styles: A Later Life Perspective – Terry L. Martin and Kenneth J. Doka
17. Suicide Among the Elderly – Judith Stillion
Index
