Rethinking The Aging Transition

The transitional phase from pre-older adult to older adult affects the wellbeing of the concerned person economically, physically, and psychologically. This book is a description of the aging transition and discusses various psychological, health, and social challenges faced by older adults globally. It also offers a comparative study on the lifestyles of older adults in India and the United States. Although there is no consensus yet on an all-encompassing theory of aging, this book centers on various theories related to aging processes in an effort to advance discussion on different aspects of aging. Various theoretical formulations, such as person-centered, Hinduism, biopsychosocial, and positive psychology, guided the author to address the topics covered in this volume. Aging and Physicians Aging and Retirement Aging, Caregiving, and COVID-19 Aging and Diversity Aging and Longevity Aging, Disease Prevention, and Technology Aging and Spirituality Through the chapters, the author builds an understanding of the fundamental relation of aging with various health and socioeconomic factors, and also emphasizes a person-centered, holistic approach that values personal autonomy, choice, comfort, dignity, and purposeful living to support aging well. Rethinking the Aging Transition: Psychological, Health, and Social Principles to Guide Aging Well has academic value from a multicultural perspective that would be of benefit to graduate and undergraduate students in gerontology and other disciplines that study aging and older adult populations. With the main aim of raising awareness, this book is an important resource for a diverse group of populations globally, including clinical and non-clinical caregivers, other health(care) professionals, and policy-makers.

Discover Your Unique Gift "Creative aging is a choice.... If we remember that transition always begins with endings, moves on to a wilderness period of testing and trying, and only then do we reach the beginning of something new, then we can embrace this encore period of life with hope and curiosity, remembering always that it is our true nature to be creative, to be always birthing new ways of sharing our planet together." --from the Epilogue In a practical and useful way, Marjory Zoet Bankson explores the spiritual dimensions of retirement and aging. She offers creative ways for you to share your gifts and experience, particularly when retirement leaves you questioning who you are when you are no longer defined by your career. Drawing on stories of people who have reinvented their lives in their older years, Bankson explores the issues you need to address as you move into this generative period of life: Release Letting go of the vocational identity associated with your career or primary work Resistance Feeling stuck, stagnant, resisting change Reclaiming Drawing energy from the past, discovering unused gifts Revelation Forming a new vision of the future Crossing Point Moving from stagnation to generativity Risk Stepping out into the world with new hope Relating Finding or creating new structures for a new kind of work

Rapid population aging, once associated with only a select group of modern industrialized nations, has now become a topic of increasing global concern. This volume reframes aging on a global scale by illustrating the multiple ways it is embedded within individual, social, and cultural life courses. It presents a broad range of ethnographic work, introducing a variety of conceptual and methodological approaches to studying life-course transitions in conjunction with broader sociocultural transformations. Through detailed accounts, in such diverse settings as nursing homes in Sri Lanka, a factory in Massachusetts, cemeteries in Japan and clinics in Mexico, the authors explore not simply our understandings of growing older, but the interweaving of individual maturity and intergenerational relationships, social and economic institutions, and intimate experiences of gender, identity, and the body.

Rethinking Aging

People are living longer, creating an unexpected boom in the elderly population. Longevity is increasing not only in wealthy countries but in developing nations as well. In response, many policy makers and scholars are preparing for a global crisis of aging. But for too long, Western experts have conceived of aging as a universal predicament—one that supposedly provokes the same welfare concerns in every context. In the twenty-first century, Kavita Sivaramakrishnan writes, we must embrace a new approach to the problem, one that prioritizes local agendas and values. As the World Ages is a history of how gerontologists, doctors, social scientists, and activists came to define the issue of global aging. Sivaramakrishnan shows that transnational organizations like the United Nations, private NGOs, and philanthropic foundations embraced programs that reflected prevailing Western ideas about development and modernization. The dominant paradigm often assumed that, because large-scale growth of an aging population happened first in the West, developing societies will experience the issues of aging in the same ways and on the same terms as their Western counterparts. But regional experts are beginning to question this one-size-fits-all model and have chosen instead to recast Western expertise in response to provincial conditions. Focusing on South Asia and Africa, Sivaramakrishnan shows how regional voices have argued for an approach that responds to local needs and concerns. The research presented in As the World Ages will help scholars, policy makers, and advocates appreciate the challenges of this recent shift in global demographics and find solutions sensitive to real life in diverse communities.

Ageing has traditionally been seen as ubiquitous decline - all 'doom and gloom'. The Psychology of Growing Old challenges this view and shows how our own attitudes and values may serve to perpetuate it. The book uses the research literature of gerontology - the multidisciplinary study of ageing and later life - to involve the reader in considering his or her own future and that of others. It examines the potential that ageing and later life have to be a rewarding experience - something to look forward to - rather than something to be denied and rejected. Unlike other books in the area, The Psychology of Growing Old places the reader centre stage as someone who can influence the future of ageing. It will be of interest to a wide range of professionals in health and social services who work with older people; and relevant to many student courses with ageing as a focus, whether in psychology, sociology, nursing, gerontology, social work or the medical professions.

As the United States and the rest of the world face the unprecedented challenge of aging populations, this volume draws together for the first time state-of-the-art work from the emerging field of the demography of aging. The nine chapters, written by experts from a variety of disciplines, highlight data sources and research approaches, results, and proposed strategies on a topic with major policy implications for labor forces, economic well-being, health care, and the need for social and family supports.