Written by internationally renowned authors, this is a comprehensive introduction to aged care for the nursing profession in clinical practice.

Completely revised with new chapters and sections covering everything the health-care provider needs to know when working with the older adult either at home or in nursing and long-term care facilities. Chapters cover factors affecting nutrition, nutrition and disease, nutritional assessment, dining challenges and regulatory compliance. This scientifically sound and practical resource for new and experienced nutrition professionals includes new forms, resources, the food guide pyramid for older adults and an index of tales.

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.

As the first of the nation's 78 million baby boomers begin reaching age 65 in 2011, they will face a health care workforce that is too small and woefully unprepared to meet their specific health needs. Retooling for an Aging America calls for bold initiatives starting immediately to train all health care providers in the basics of geriatric care and to prepare family members and other informal caregivers, who currently receive little or no training in how to tend to their aging loved ones. The book also recommends that Medicare, Medicaid, and other health plans pay higher rates to boost recruitment and retention of geriatric specialists and care aides. Educators and health professional groups can use Retooling for an Aging America to institute or increase formal education and training in geriatrics. Consumer groups can use the book to advocate for improving the care for older adults. Health care professional and occupational groups can use it to improve the quality of health care jobs.

As the population of older adults in the U.S. continues to grow, medical house calls are increasingly part of a system of comprehensive home-based care for patients who have difficulty accessing office-.based care. Clinicians who have been trained mostly in office and hospital settings must adapt their usual approaches to accommodate a wide range of environmental, social, and physical circumstances that impact home-limited patients. Ideally, a comprehensive team of clinicians proficient in multiple domains of functional, social, and medical care can work together to address potential gaps in any one clinician’s expertise. Unfortunately, such teams are still rare. This book aims to equip individual clinicians with the interdisciplinary knowledge, skills, and perspective they need to provide the best care possible with limited formal interdisciplinary support. This book offers 20 patient cases drawn from the collective experience of experts in home-based medical care from highly respected academic and clinical programs across the United States. Each case demonstrates a scenario that is frequently encountered and/or very important in home-based medical care practice. Each scenario frequently proves to be challenging for many professionals because it requires an approach or leverages aspects of care delivery that most are not trained in. Additionally, each scenario reflects an approach to care that is enhanced by interdisciplinary input. Finally, each case lends itself to a practical problem-solving approach that could be accomplished by most home-based medical care providers, even in the absence of an interdisciplinary team. Written by interdisciplinary experts in geriatric home-based care, this book serves as both an educational tool for learners in all related disciplines as well as a quick reference for experienced clinicians looking to augment their existing house call “toolbox.”

By the year 2000 more than 50 percent of mainline Protestants will be over the age of sixty. Older adults have special needs, to which many pastors are not adequately prepared to minister. Harold Koenig and Andrew Weaver address this problem by providing practical guidance in dealing with such issues as Alzheimer's disease, the chronically ill, relocation, health crises, grief, depression, anxiety, gender differences, poverty, and the needs of children of older adults.