Ageing And Caring

Underlines the importance of well-being in old age and offers practical advice on how to maintain a happy and fulfilling life, whatever the challenges.

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.

The global phenomenon of the aging of societies during a period of outstanding scientific, economic, and technological advancements is a blessing for humanity. These fundamental changes, however, create new needs and problems in all areas of life, often difficult to address. In some countries, the trend is towards compression of the period of age-related morbidity - fewer years of living with disabilities - but the absolute numbers of elderly people living with disabilities are increasing worldwide. This book highlights a series of global threats, problems and challenges in the areas of care and caregiving, through the prism of three multicultural nations: the United States, Israel and Australia. The contributors to this book, experts in their fields, focus on the art of caregiving at the national level, including the interface between family and state responsibilities, policies and practices in the provision of services, and the demands for education and training, as well as the problems and difficulties faced by family caregivers. This is the second of two edited volumes on aging and caregiving. The first, ""Lessons on Aging from Three Nations - Volume I: The Art of Aging Well"", examines positive aspects of and successful adaptations to aging. This book will be of interest to students of gerontology and geriatrics; those working in nongovernmental organizations - private, for-profit and non-profit agencies, including voluntary charitable and religious groups, those working in national regional and local governments, and all general readers intrigued with the aging of societies and longevity.

Meeting the Needs of Older Adults with Serious Illness: Challenges and Opportunities in the Age of Health Care Reform provides an introduction to the principles of palliative care; describes current models of delivering palliative care across care settings, and examines opportunities in the setting of healthcare policy reform for palliative care to improve outcomes for patients, families and healthcare institutions. The United States is currently facing a crisis in health care marked by unsustainable spending and quality that is poor relative to international benchmarks. Yet this is also a critical time of opportunity. Because of its focus on quality of care, the Affordable Care Act is poised to expand access to palliative care services for the sickest, most vulnerable, and therefore most costly, 5% of patients- a small group who nonetheless drive about 50% of all healthcare spending. Palliative care is specialized medical care for people with serious illnesses. It focuses on providing patients with relief from the symptoms, pain, and stress of a serious illness—whatever the diagnosis or stage of illness. The goal is to improve quality of life for both the patient and the family. Research has demonstrated palliative care’s positive impact on health care value. Patients (and family caregivers) receiving palliative care experience improved quality of life, better symptom management, lower rates of depression and anxiety, and improved survival. Because patient and family needs are met, crises are prevented, thereby directly reducing need for emergency department and hospital use and their associated costs. An epiphenomenon of better quality of care, the lower costs associated with palliative care have been observed in multiple studies. Meeting the Needs of Older Adults with Serious Illness: Challenges and Opportunities in the Age of Health Care Reform, a roadmap for effective policy and program design, brings together expert clinicians, researchers and policy leaders, who tackle key areas where real-world policy options to improve access to quality palliative care could have a substantial role in improving value.

Recognizing rapidly ageing population is one key concern faced by cities and the challenge it would present to healthcare system, this book looks at ageing in China’s population as well as the delivery and financing of long-term care (LTC) in China. The book compares key features of long-term care insurance (LTCI) schemes in 15 pilot cities and evaluates the sustainability of various financing models adopted by the cities in the LTCI schemes. The book uses an interpretive case study approach to give an in-depth look into the LTC models in three pilot cities – Qingdao, Nantong, and Shanghai. The three cities represent three different models of financing and delivering LTC. To assess how effective the LTC models in these three cities are, the book uses five criteria, including utilization of medical resources, cost, equity, quality of care and sustainability. Also, the authors discuss how the financing and delivery of LTC can be improved in China, the impact of the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on older adults in need of LTC in the country and the implications of China’s LTCI reform for other countries. The book will be a useful reference to scholars and policy-makers who look at urban ageing and healthcare costs and delivery.

Current and future provision of health and social care for older people is explored in this timely study. It draws on examples from Germany, Sweden and the UK to measure the impact of trends including neoliberalisation and marketisation.

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.