Enhance the intervention strategies you use in therapy with older adults and their families. This significant new book provides practitioners with information, insight, reference sources, and other valuable tools that will contribute to more effective intervention with the elderly and their families. Outstanding scholars have contributed original material that addresses the major issues in treating the elderly from the practitioner’s point of view; the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual concerns of the aged are examined in order to formulate a systemic and comprehensive treatment plan. Destined to become a classic in a challenging new area of psychotherapy, the unique Aging and Family Therapy promises to guide and inform practitioners who will be called upon to provide assistance to the increasing number of older adults who will be in need of mental health services.

Sixty is the new forty. Changing Aging, Changing Family Therapy gives family therapists a roadmap for adapting to the new realities of aging.

Caring for an older family member with physical or cognitive impairments is a difficult, strenuous process. Caregivers often struggle to balance their own needs with those of the care recipient. Their relationships with family, friends, coworkers, and even the care recipient can suffer as well. As a result, family members often seek professional help to guide them through the caregiving process. This book presents Caregiver Family Therapy (CFT), a systems approach to treating families that care for an aging adult. CFT consists of three core stages: Identifying the problem Structuring caregiver roles Ensuring caregiver self-care Transition stages bridge one core stage to the next, helping caregivers structure care for the older adult, examine the impact of caregiving role structures, and consider broader effects of caregiving. As new challenges arise, the stages are repeated and the CFT process begins anew. Full of rich clinical examples, this book will help therapists and other service providers meet the complex, diverse needs of caregiving families.

As the population of the United States ages, and the lifspan increases, so does the number of living generations. The mental health care delivery system therefore faces new challenges. The United States is heading into the 21st century with multigenerational families now commonplace, with up to four or five generations co-existing at the same time. And each generation is forced to deal with its own developmental transitions as well as complex cross-generational issues. When a therapist steps into this situation, his or her role has to take on board the complexity of the whole family system.; This text highlights the issues that hold families together and often tear them apart. It offers core perspectives that seek to make the work of intervention easier and more effective for the clinician. Whether the therapist is called upon to intervene on behalf of elder members to deal with issues such as depression, or to step in when younger members are trying to determine how best to provide eldercare, the perspectives presented in The Aging Family aim to enrich the strategies used.

Family caregiving affects millions of Americans every day, in all walks of life. At least 17.7 million individuals in the United States are caregivers of an older adult with a health or functional limitation. The nation's family caregivers provide the lion's share of long-term care for our older adult population. They are also central to older adults' access to and receipt of health care and community-based social services. Yet the need to recognize and support caregivers is among the least appreciated challenges facing the aging U.S. population. Families Caring for an Aging America examines the prevalence and nature of family caregiving of older adults and the available evidence on the effectiveness of programs, supports, and other interventions designed to support family caregivers. This report also assesses and recommends policies to address the needs of family caregivers and to minimize the barriers that they encounter in trying to meet the needs of older adults.

With today’s shifting demographics can arise tricky family issues—here are tips for therapists on how to steer clients through them. As the average lifespan increases, so does the number of living generations, a recipe for some potentially complex family issues. This book offers therapeutic strategies to navigate the unique dynamics and experiences of today’s aging families, from the “sandwich generation” and caregiver burdens to divorce, bereavement, and much more.

Offers therapists guidance in helping multigenerational families with older members understand and cope with the myriad challenges they face. The text considers such issues as: confronting death; life validation; life review; and exoneration, forgiveness, and healing in the family.