Dignity And Old Age

Open up Dignity and Old Age, and you’ll find a wealth of thoughtful suggestions for how you and others can gain more respect and admiration for your relatives, neighbors, and patients who are in the latter stages of life. You’ll examine the word “dignity” as it relates to the world’s elderly population to the fullest and most challenging extent, taking into account cross-cultural, religious, and even literary influences. Throughout this provoking and thorough examination, you’ll tackle some tough questions, all of which will equip you with the theoretical and practical know-how needed to evoke change and preserve honorable relations with the elderly persons in your professional and personal relationships. The manner in which Dignity and Old Age will help you grow in your relationships with elderly people is twofold--ideally and practically. You’ll begin with a revitalizing discussion of concepts that revolve around dignity and the elderly, and from there you’ll move into the sphere of active practice, gleaning a wide variety of ways you can enhance your affairs with the elderly in health care, social services, government, and retirement entitlements and benefits. Specifically, you’ll find positive approaches in these and other areas: the dignity in old age the true meaning of “Quality of Life” in old age achieving respect for ethnic elders as a health care provider bringing spirituality and community together in the last stage of life forming a philanthropic, caring partnership between government and the elderly In this insightful volume, you’ll take an important step forward in creating a more dignified quality of life for the world’s elderly--today’s and tomorrow’s. Overall, you’ll gain the variety of perspectives necessary to ensure that everyone you come in contact with in casual, legal, leisure, and professional spheres will see you care enough to be concerned with the ideas and practices contained in Dignity and Old Age.

One of Time’s 100 most influential people “shines a new light on the need for a holistic approach to caregiving in America . . . Timely and hopeful” (Maria Shriver). In The Age of Dignity, thought leader and activist Ai-jen Poo offers a wake-up call about the statistical reality that will affect us all: Fourteen percent of our population is now over sixty-five; by 2030 that ratio will be one in five. In fact, our fastest-growing demographic is the eighty-five-plus age group—over five million people now, a number that is expected to more than double in the next twenty years. This change presents us with a new challenge: how we care for and support quality of life for the unprecedented numbers of older Americans who will need it. Despite these daunting numbers, Poo has written a profoundly hopeful book, giving us a glimpse into the stories and often hidden experiences of the people—family caregivers, older people, and home care workers—whose lives will be directly shaped and reshaped in this moment of demographic change. The Age of Dignity outlines a road map for how we can become a more caring nation, providing solutions for fixing our fraying safety net while also increasing opportunities for women, immigrants, and the unemployed in our workforce. As Poo has said, “Care is the strategy and the solution toward a better future for all of us.” “Every American should read this slender book. With luck, it will be the future for all of us.” —Gloria Steinem “Positive and inclusive.” —The New York Times “A big-hearted book [that] seeks to transform our dismal view of aging and caregiving.” —Ms. magazine

Maintaining dignity for patients approaching death is a core principle of palliative care. Dignity therapy, a psychological intervention developed by Dr. Harvey Max Chochinov and his internationally lauded research group, has been designed specifically to address many of the psychological, existential, and spiritual challenges that patients and their families face as they grapple with the reality of life drawing to a close. In the first book to lay out the blueprint for this unique and meaningful intervention, Chochinov addresses one of the most important dimensions of being human. Being alive means being vulnerable and mortal; he argues that dignity therapy offers a way to preserve meaning and hope for patients approaching death. With history and foundations of dignity in care, and step by step guidance for readers interested in implementing the program, this volume illuminates how dignity therapy can change end-of-life experience for those about to die - and for those who will grieve their passing.

Welcome to a new and exciting concept: Aging Gracefully with Dignity, Integrity & Spunk Intact: Aging Defiantly! Yes, the dawn of a new age is here. Along with the Age of Life Sciences (extending both life and health opportunities for those "entering that age"), new possibilities are on the horizon, limitless boundaries beckons, and a new age dawns: The Age of the Silver Generation. Explore your strengths, develop your hidden treasures, and explore the endless opportunities of your Personal Retrieval System (PRS) within the self. The sum total of knowledge and experience gained over a lifetime may well be available to you for most of the rest of your life. Empower yourself; let no one hold you back. Become the trail blazers and pathfinders. Science, medicine and technology are on your side: EMPOWER YOURSELF... and join in the glitter and sparkle of a rapidly developing new generation. Read this book -- baby boomers too -- and see what is in store for The Age of the Silver Generation and remember: the only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be. (Ralph Waldo Emerson).

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE BALSILLIE PRIZE FOR PUBLIC POLICY It took the coronavirus pandemic to open our eyes to the deplorable state of so many of the nation's long-term care homes: the inhumane conditions, overworked and underpaid staff, and lack of oversight. In this timely new book, esteemed health reporter André Picard reveals the full extent of the crisis in eldercare, and offers an urgently needed prescription to fix a broken system. When COVID-19 spread through seniors' residences across Canada, the impact was horrific. Along with widespread illness and a devastating death toll, the situation exposed a decades-old crisis: the shocking systemic neglect towards our elders. Called in to provide emergency care in some of the hardest-hit facilities in Ontario and Quebec, the military issued damning reports of what they encountered. And yet, the failings that were exposed--unappetizing meals, infrequent baths, overmedication, physical abuse and inadequate personal care--have persisted for years in these institutions. In Neglected No More, André Picard takes a hard look at how we came to embrace mass institutionalization, and lays out what can and must be done to improve the state of care for our elders, a highly vulnerable population with complex needs and little ability to advocate for themselves. Picard shows that the entire eldercare system--fragmented, underfunded and unsupported--is long overdue for a fundamental rethink. We need to find ways to ensure seniors can age gracefully in the community for longer, with supportive home care and respite for family caregivers, and ensure that long-term care homes are not warehouses of isolation and neglect. Our elders deserve nothing less.

The notion of quality of life has for several decades been well-established in ethical debate about health care and the care of older people. Dignity in Care for Older People highlights the notion of dignity within the care of the elderly, focusing on the importance of theoretical concepts. Primarily based on a Research Project, Dignity and Older Europeans, funded by the European Commission, this book provides a thorough investigation of the concept of dignity and related concepts such as quality of life and autonomy. It includes a chapter devoted to the dignity of human embodiment, emphasizing the importance of the notion of the lived body in the context of elderly care. As a result of the conceptual study a model of dignity emerges in which four variants of dignity stand out: dignity of merit, dignity as moral status, dignity of identity and Menschenwürde (the specifically human value). From this follows a discussion of how these variants of dignity can be used in characterizing the care of the elderly. The notions of dignity and dignified care are discussed particularly in relation to demented persons and dying persons. The book also contains a chapter on the dignity of the dead person. International in focus, Dignity in Care for Older People provides a contemporary discussion of the care of older people, and will be of use to qualified nurses and social care practitioners working with older people, as well as those on ethics and gerontology courses.

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