"This book demonstrates how to address practical and ethical challenges when evaluating capacities of older adults with neurocognitive disorders, like dementia. The contributors are expert clinicians who draw upon real life experiences conducting clinical capacity assessments in civil matters, illustrating best practices based on the guidelines from the ABA/APA's Assessment of Older Adults with Diminished Capacity: A Handbook for Psychologists. Chapters cover complex and difficult issues in careful detail, including: * financial exploitation, * undue influence, * sexual consent, and * medical aid in dying. The author also provides guidance for negotiating family conflicts, working with surrogate decision makers who also have diminished capacity, coordinating with medical and legal professionals, and addressing other situations that involve multiple stakeholders with competing priorities. A recurring theme throughout the volume is the challenge of balancing a client's right to autonomy, while also protecting them from harm. The book offers careful, effective advice for keeping clients who lack decision making capacity involved in their healthcare choices and working to maintain their independence when daily living skills are impaired"--

Social isolation and loneliness are serious yet underappreciated public health risks that affect a significant portion of the older adult population. Approximately one-quarter of community-dwelling Americans aged 65 and older are considered to be socially isolated, and a significant proportion of adults in the United States report feeling lonely. People who are 50 years of age or older are more likely to experience many of the risk factors that can cause or exacerbate social isolation or loneliness, such as living alone, the loss of family or friends, chronic illness, and sensory impairments. Over a life course, social isolation and loneliness may be episodic or chronic, depending upon an individual's circumstances and perceptions. A substantial body of evidence demonstrates that social isolation presents a major risk for premature mortality, comparable to other risk factors such as high blood pressure, smoking, or obesity. As older adults are particularly high-volume and high-frequency users of the health care system, there is an opportunity for health care professionals to identify, prevent, and mitigate the adverse health impacts of social isolation and loneliness in older adults. Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults summarizes the evidence base and explores how social isolation and loneliness affect health and quality of life in adults aged 50 and older, particularly among low income, underserved, and vulnerable populations. This report makes recommendations specifically for clinical settings of health care to identify those who suffer the resultant negative health impacts of social isolation and loneliness and target interventions to improve their social conditions. Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults considers clinical tools and methodologies, better education and training for the health care workforce, and dissemination and implementation that will be important for translating research into practice, especially as the evidence base for effective interventions continues to flourish.

Part of the Wiley Series in Clinical Geropsychology, Changes in Decision-Making Capacity in Older Adults: Assessment and Intervention helps to familiarize you with the legal and social contexts for decision making in potentially impaired individuals. Editors Sara Qualls and Michael Smyer have brought together a notable team of international contributors to provide you with a unique framework of the legal, social, and psychological approaches to assessing the ability of older adults to make decisions.