The aged in Rural America

The Handbook of Rural Aging goes beyond the perspective of a narrow range of health professions, disciplines, and community services that serve older adults in rural America to encompass the full range of perspectives and issues impacting the communities in which rural older adults live. Touching on such topics as work and voluntarism, technology, transportation, housing, the environment, social participation, and the delivery of health and community services, this reference work addresses the full breadth and scope of factors impacting the lives of rural elders with contributions from recognized scholars, administrators, and researchers. This Handbook buttresses a widespread movement to garner more attention for rural America in policy matters and decisions, while also elevating awareness of the critical circumstances facing rural elders and those who serve them. Merging demographic, economic, social, cultural, health, environmental, and political perspectives, it will be an essential reference source for library professionals, researchers, educators, students, program and community administrators, and practitioners with a combined interest in rural issues and aging.

Research documents that rural elders are poorer, live in less adequate housing, and have far fewer health and service options available to them than their urban counterparts, yet there is a critical lack of current and detailed information on the problems facing rural elders and on the professional practices that serve this population. This text fills this gap by introducing readers to rural areas and their residents and discussing the issues, programs, and policies designed to meet their needs. Through a multidisciplinary lens, it examines and defines specific competencies required for successful work with older adults and their families in these communities. The text presents a research-driven, competency-based approach for the health and human service professionals who work with older rural residents. It discusses both the problems facing older adults and their families and evidence-based solutions regarding policy and best practices. Key issues examined include health and wellness, transportation, housing, long-term care, income, employment, and retirement, along with the needs of special populations (ethnic minorities, immigrants, and the LGBT population). Case examples reinforce an interdisciplinary model that addresses practice with rural elders that encompasses professional competencies, values and ethics, and the roles of a spectrum of health and human service professionals. The text also examines current policies affecting health and social services to rural elders and recommendations for policy change to build an effective health and human service workforce in rural communities. Links to Podcast interviews with scholars and respected professionals working in the field and "Spotlight" excerpts from the text reinforce information. In addition, the text provides discussion questions, PowerPoint slides, a test question bank, and suggested activities and exercises. Key Features: Fills a vacuum regarding information on health and social services for rural elders Provides current and comprehensive knowledge about issues besetting this population and programs and policies designed to meet their needs Examines and defines specific competencies required for effective health and social services Based on a research-driven, competency-based, interdisciplinary approach to policy and best practice Includes links to Podcast interviews with scholars and respected professionals in the field

This book investigates sociological, demographic and geographic aspects of aging in rural and nonmetropolitan areas of the United States. Population aging is one of the most important trends of the 20th and 21st centuries, and it is occurring worldwide, especially in more developed countries such as the United States. Population aging is more rapid in rural than urban areas of the U.S. In 2010, 15 percent of the nonmetropolitan compared to 12 percent of the metropolitan population were 65 years of age and older. By definition rural communities have smaller sized populations, and more limited healthcare, transportation and other aging-relevant services than do urban areas. It is thus especially important to study and understand aging in rural environments. Rural Aging in 21st Century America contributes evidence-based, policy-relevant information on rural aging in the U.S. A primary objective of the book is to improve understanding of what makes the experience of rural aging different from aging in urban areas and to increase understanding of the aged change the nature of rural places. The book addresses unique features of rural aging across economic, racial/ethnic, migration and other structures and patterns, all with a focus on debunking myths about rural aging and to emphasize opportunities and challenges that rural places and older people experience.

This important book addresses a growing international interest in 'age-friendly' communities. It examines the conflicting stereotypes of rural communities as either idyllic and supportive or isolated and bereft of services. Providing detailed information on the characteristics of rural communities, contributors ask the question, 'good places for whom'? The book extends our understanding of the intersections of rural people and places across the adult lifecourse. Taking a critical human ecology perspective, authors trace lifecourse changes in community and voluntary engagement and in the availability of social support. They illustrate diversity among older adults in social inclusion and in the types of services that are essential to their well being. For the first time, detailed information is provided on characteristics of rural communities that make them supportive to different groups of older adults. Comparisons between the UK and North America highlight similarities in how landscapes create rural identities, and fundamental differences in how climate, distance and rural culture shape the everyday lives of older adults. Rural ageing is a valuable resource for students, academics and practitioners interested in communities, rural settings and ageing and the lifecourse. Rich in national profiles and grounded in the narratives of older adults, it provides theoretical, empirical and practical examples of growing old in rural communities never before presented.

Most social studies of older people in the United States have focused upon problems and conditions encountered in urban centers. In Older Rural Americans sixteen social scientists representing various regions examine in depth the circumstances of older people in rural America. The authors first consider older people in the contexts of work, the family, and the community, discussing their social outlook, their place in these contexts, and the profound changes they face as they move away from an active part in these areas of life. Later chapters analyze the distribution of the rural aged population and their economic, housing, and health status. Of particular interest are essays treating the place and condition of older rural people in three major subcultures of the United States -- the American Indian, the Spanish-speaking people of the Southwest, and African Americans. Finally, the authors trace the development of local, state, and federal programs designed to assist the aged. The authors argue that an understanding of rural life some sixty years ago is of the utmost importance, for it is the values of that time that have largely formed the attitudes and outlooks of today's rural aged.