Gerontology Commons^™

Home Care Allowances For The Frail Elderly: For And Against, Jorma Sipila

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Arguments that have been presented for and against HCAs are considered below. The focus is on debates around traditionalist and feminist standpoints. Another central concern is to draw attention to the contextual boundaries of these debates; therefore we shall consider arguments both from the U.S. and Europe. Finland is presented as a special case, because this Scandinavian welfare state has an exceptionally extensive HCA programme.

Caring For Dementing And Nondementing Chronically Ill Elderly In Belgium: Modeling Salutogenic And Pathogenic Processes, Timothy John Gallagher

Dissertations

The predominant model in the study of stress and disease has been identified as the pathogenic orientation. The underlying assumption of this orientation is that stress is, by nature, disease causing. An alternative model is the salutogenic orientation (Antonovsky, 1979). Researchers using the salutogenic approach are concerned with explaining the origins of health. In the present study, a sample of Flemish caregivers {N = 126) to persons with chronic dementing and nondementing disorders is examined in order to detail how sense of coherence (a measure of personality disposition), the nature of patient pathology, demographic characteristics, coping resources, and perceived negative …

Lounge Chair Criteria For The Elderly, Edna M. I. Bosco

Masters Theses

This study investigated relationships between lounge chair design, functional positioning and comfort for the elderly. Thirty-five elderly residents from two local congregate living residences were assessed utilizing lounge chairs located at the residence. Measurements of the chairs were taken, coded and compared to specific norms established by Harris and Mayfield (1983b). Measurements consisted of armrest dimensions, seat depth and height, seat slope, and backrest dimensions. Each chair was scored based on the number of recommended standards for comfort met in the Harris and Mayfield research (1983b).

Frequency counts were taken and descriptive data collected and analyzed to determine relationships between …

Meeting The Mental Health Needs Of Older Adults Through The Reminiscence Group, Christina Marie Martin

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

An Evaluation Of Ethnic Differences In Responses To An Adult Abuse Risk Factor Questionnaire, Janet Hawkins

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

Texas Silver-Haired Legislature Foundation Minutes, 1993, Texas Silver Haired Legislature Foundation

Texas Silver-Haired Legislature

Texas Silver-Haired Legislature Foundation minutes from 1993.

The Older Population In Massachusetts, 1980-1990, Gerontology Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Gerontology Institute Publications

Massachusetts and the nation are aging! People 65 and older are growing in numbers more rapidly than other younger segments of the population, and the unprecedented growth of this group has created new demands on and new opportunities for every major sector of American life. But if we are to make constructive plans for an aging society, we must have sound information on the major changes in the make-up of the population.

This report shows how the older populations in Massachusetts and in the United States have changed in the decade between 1980 and 1990. It is designed to serve …

Correlates Of The Elderly's Participation And Nonparticipation In The Supplemental Security Income (Ssi) Program: A New Evaluation, Namkee G. Choi

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper analyzes the economic and sociodemographic factors associated with the elderly's participation and nonparticipation in the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. Unlike the previous findings based on the early phase of the program, this analysis found that the amount of benefit is no longer a significant predictor of participation for couples and individuals receiving support and maintenance. Level of education and housing status are now found to be consistently significantly associated with participation of all or most filing units. The paper concludes with a discussion of policy recommendations for more aggressive outreach efforts.

Daily Life Of The Oldest Old, Margareta Carlsson-Agren, Stig Berg, Claes-Goran Wenestam

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The purpose of this study was to investigate how very old persons-a representative sample of 129 noninstitutionalized 85-year-old Swedish persons with different patterns of adjustment-may live and experience daily life. The analysis of in-depth interviews showed that better adjusted participants enjoyed their freedom as retirees to form daily life at their own choosing. Within patterns of poorer adjustment, daily life was more influenced by other conditions than by the individual's preferences. It was common to construct personal time-tables for keeping up self-control and regardless of the level of activity, most participants thought that time passed quickly. It is argued that …

Occasional Paper No. 092-1: Health Care Perceptions Of Nebraska's Urban & Rural Aged, James A. Thorson, F. C. Powell

Publications

Random samples were drawn in Douglas County, Nebraska (N = 196, mean age = 73.8 years), in the counties surrounding Douglas County also served by the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging (N = 104, mean age = 72.4 years), and in eleven of the rural Sandhills counties of Nebraska (N = 200, mean age = 76.6). Participants responded to structured interviews of 169 questions that included self-assessed health status, availability of health care and physician services, costs, attitudes toward health care services, health experiences and beliefs. While the Sandhills respondents were significantly older and had less access to health services, …

Cognitive Disability Theory As A Basis For Activity Analysis For Elderly Persons With Dementia, Deborah S. Kaeser

Masters Theses

Allen's (1985) Cognitive Disability approach provides a guideline for modifying the cognitive demands of an activity to match the abilities of an individual. Thirty older adults with a mean age of 78.1 years and a diagnosis indicating an irreversible dementia were selected for the study. A counterbalanced design was used to compare the performance of 15 individuals with a Level Three cognitive ability and 15 individuals with a Level Four cognitive ability on two tiling craft activities: one with Level Three cognitive demands and one with Level Four cognitive demands. Analysis of variance indicated a significant interaction between cognitive level …

Medicare Supplemental Insurance: Today's Crisis, Health Care For All, Gerontology Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Gerontology Institute Publications

The purpose of health insurance is to spread risk. The system works under the assumption that, at any given point in time, only a percentage of the people in a given group will be sick. Regardless of health status, all members of the group will be paying premiums in order to cover the cost of care for those who need it.

As a group, however, seniors represent a high-risk population. They are more likely than younger people to need health care services and tend to require longer hospital stays. Yet, while their expenses are greater, their financial resources are generally …

Elder-Caregiving Among University Employees: Responsibilities And Needs, Constance L. Coogle, Edward F. Ansello

Virginia Center on Aging Publications

Although many institutions of higher education often house the researchers who study eldercare, few have documented the need for information and services among their estimated 460,000 employees who face the difficult task of effectively balancing work and eldercare responsibilities. Even fewer have established programs to address this need.

Drs. Constance Coogle and Edward Ansello have recently completed an exhaustive survey of VCU employees (N = 11,430) to determine the extent to which they provide care to disabled parents or spouses.[1] A longer, more detailed survey was sent to those who indicated that they were eldercaregivers to measure their perceived …

Tshl Resolutions And Results 1992, Texas Silver-Haired Legislature

Texas Silver-Haired Legislature

Texas Silver-Haired Legislature resolutions and results from 1992.

Texas Silver-Haired Legislature Foundation Minutes, 1992, Texas Silver Haired Legislature Foundation

Texas Silver-Haired Legislature

Texas Silver-Haired Legislature Foundation minutes from 1992.

Texas Silver-Haired Legislature Foundation Reports To Secretary Of State, Texas Silver-Haired Legislature

Texas Silver-Haired Legislature

Texas Silver-Haired Legislature Foundation Reports to Secretary of State, 1992-2013.

Texas Silver-Haired Legislature Bylaws 1992, Texas Silver-Haired Legislature

Texas Silver-Haired Legislature

Texas Silver-Haired Legislature bylaws from 1992.

Ag Edwards Investment Account 1992-1994, Texas Silver Haired Legislature Foundation

Texas Silver-Haired Legislature

Information on the AG Edwards Investment Account from 1992-1994.

Ageism And Lesbians: An Exploratory Study, Suzanne Murdock-Amant

Theses

Ageism, not aging, oppresses. Women are oppressed by other women as well as by themselves . This is an exploratory study of the root sources of ageism in the lesbian community, speculating about t he conscious and unconscious motivations around ageism. It is assumed to be clear to all lesbians who have shunned patriarchal notions, build- in negation and diminishing of women, that ageism distracts lesbians from the pursuit of t he essential self, the very identity which lesbianism makes possible.

One old lesbian writes that she thinks it ironic that even in a woman-identified society like the lesbian community, …

Reviews Of New Books In Gerontology (1991), Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Review of L.A. Pastalan & M.E. Cowart. Lifestyles and Housing of Older Adults: The Florida Experience. New York: Haworth Press. 1989. 114 pp. $22.95. Brief reviews of Teitelman and Parham (Compilers) Fundamentals of Geriatrics for Health Professionals: An Annotated Bibliography; Hughston, Christopherson & Bonjean (Eds.) Aging and Family Therapy: Practitioner Perspectives on Golden Pond.; Disch (Ed.) Twenty-Five Years of the Life Review: Theoretical and Practical Considerations; and Clements (Ed). Religion, Aging and Health: A Global Perspective.

Social Planning And The Problems Of Old Age, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper includes a review of the evolution of social planning in the context of human services. It also includes an elaboration of nine approaches to social planning for aging services: community planning councils, the aging network, Title XX planning, state health planning, service reorganization initiatives, the national network of policy institutes, long-term care planning and housing planning. The paper concludes with a consideration of social planning technology, including needs assessment, resource analysis, comparison of alternatives, determination of priorities, implementation and evaluation. It concludes that social planning has been a primary tool in the long-term development of new institutions and …

Aging And Social Policy, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Social planning has a long history in social work. It has gone from an early emphasis on community as the modal point to an emphasis on public policy planning at the state and federal levels and recently to an emphasis on organizational issues and initiatives. Social planning has been a primary tool in the long-term development of new institutions and practices brought about by the unprecendented increases in the size of the aged population. Probably the oldest intact social planning systems for aging in most American communities today are the networks of community planning which grew up in the voluntary …

Tshl Policy And Procedures 1992-1994, Texas Silver Haired Legislature Foundation, Texas Silver-Haired Legislature

Texas Silver-Haired Legislature

Texas Silver-Haired Legislature policy and procedures from 1992-1994.

Texas Silver-Haired Legislature Foundation Minutes, 1991, Texas Silver Haired Legislature Foundation

Texas Silver-Haired Legislature

Texas Silver-Haired Legislature Foundation minutes from 1991.

Illness Career Descent And The Descending Hierarchy: The Organizational Structure Of A Retirement Facility, Bradley J. Fisher

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Illness career descent is a process involving the downward trajectory of chronic illness and the residents' downward movement through the organizational structure of the retirement facility. This structure can be conceptualized as a "descending" hierarchy where residents experience downward mobility through successively lower statuses. These conceptualizations are grounded in three years of participant observation and interviews with over 150 residents at a multilevel care retirement facility. Downward mobility, within the facility, entails relocation to more regimented and stigmatized residency situations. The individual's goal is to slow down the pace of this illness career timetable. Descending hierarchical structures within facilities for …

The Repertory Of Social Care Of The Elderly, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper is an analysis of aspects of the emergence of a repertory of social care services for the elderly from the vantage point of the common theory of voluntary action. One facet of that theory, labeled here as endowment theory, is an emerging rational choice model of the praxeological implications of voluntary action within the pragmatic problem-solving tradition. Three terms – endowment, repertory and commons – are presented in the paper as terms whose conventional meanings contain previously undisclosed connotations relevant to a fuller understanding of voluntary action.

Conflict And Violence In Gende Society: Older Persons As Victims, Troublemakers, And Perpetrators, Laura J. Zimmer

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

The Duration Of Tinnitus In An Aging Population, Mary Engel

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether the perceived severity of chronic tinnitus in a geriatric population increased, decreased, or remained constant with the passage of time. A questionnaire was designed to ascertain the subjects' perceived severity at time of onset and the perceived severity of their current tinnitus. The subjects were asked to rate their past and present tinnitus severity according to how much it bothered them. They were also asked questions pertaining to noise exposure history, hearing aid use, and tinnitus sound parameters for purposes of comparison with other groups previously studied.

Long-Term Care Policy: Where Are We Going?, Gerontology Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Omb Watch

Gerontology Institute Publications

Millions of Americans suffer from physical or mental conditions that make it difficult for them to live fully independent lives. These are the frail elderly, disabled and chronically ill persons of all ages, and many mentally ill or mentally retarded persons. They need help to manage daily activities, whether they live in their own homes or in nursing homes.

Such care can be extremely expensive, since it often must be provided for many years, even a lifetime. Today, those costs are met largely by the individuals themselves or by their families and by public programs for low-income persons.

For many …

Relocation And Health Effects On The Elderly A Commented Research Review, Berth Danermark, Mats Ekstrom

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper summarizes and comments on the research on the relationship between relocation and morbidity/mortality among the elderly. In the present state of research there are not sufficient grounds for the drawing of general conclusions. On the other hand there is good reason for assuming that relocation under certain circumstances and for certain groups does lead to ill-health and to an increase in mortality. There is a lack of studies devoted to systematic investigation of the influence of such conditions. Various designs and methods have been used, and this reduces comparability. There is also a lack of theoretically guided empirical …