Provide effective services to ethnic elders with culturally competent training!Therapeutic Interventions with Ethnic Elders: Health and Social Issues provides culture-specific information to health and social work professionals. You will explore distinctive qualities that are found in ten different ethnic groups to help you better serve these populations. The historical events that have shaped these elders’often-adverse reactions to mainstream providers are also included. Ideas on how to effectively approach these situations are included to improve your skills with a diverse population of clients. The information in Therapeutic Interventions with Ethnic Elders is invaluable to health care administrators who plan services and hire personnel to work with various ethnic groups. The book also functions as a training tool to increase the awareness of staff members who currently work with ethnically diverse populations. You will learn to recognize culturally driven behaviors in ethnic elders and how to make appropriate interventions. Some of the general and culture-specific issues that Therapeutic Interventions with Ethnic Elders addresses are: helping ethnic elders to feel comfortable utilizing your services appropriately modifying therapy to meet the individual's cultural background reinforcing a new sense of independence for these elders by helping them understand available services understanding cultural inhibitions in Japan that hide, deny, or ignore mental illness realizing that traditional Euro-American psychotherapy techniques cannot be readily transplanted and applied to all other cultures addressing depression, anxiety, increased illness, intergenerational conflict, and even marital conflict combined with the stress of assimilation and acculturation among Russian emigrants understanding folk beliefs and the importance of the role of the church for many elder African-Americans Therapeutic Interventions with Ethnic Elders addresses the need for practitioners, agencies, and institutions to understand and respect the different characteristics of each elderly minority population. You will examine the unique historical contexts of Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, African, Russian, Navajo, Yaqui, Mexican, Cuban, and Puerto Rican elders and explore the stress factors that come with immigrating, such as finding a peaceful place to live and being confronted by age discrimination and racism. This important book explains cultural behaviors to provide you with effective suggestions for providing optimum care to the ethnic elders in your life.

Provide effective services to ethnic elders with culturally competent training! Therapeutic Interventions with Ethnic Elders: Health and Social Issues provides culture-specific information to health and social work professionals. You will explore distinctive qualities that are found in ten different ethnic groups to help you better serve these populations. The historical events that have shaped these elders’often-adverse reactions to mainstream providers are also included. Ideas on how to effectively approach these situations are included to improve your skills with a diverse population of clients. The information in Therapeutic Interventions with Ethnic Elders is invaluable to health care administrators who plan services and hire personnel to work with various ethnic groups. The book also functions as a training tool to increase the awareness of staff members who currently work with ethnically diverse populations. You will learn to recognize culturally driven behaviors in ethnic elders and how to make appropriate interventions. Some of the general and culture-specific issues that Therapeutic Interventions with Ethnic Elders addresses are: helping ethnic elders to feel comfortable utilizing your services appropriately modifying therapy to meet the individual's cultural background reinforcing a new sense of independence for these elders by helping them understand available services understanding cultural inhibitions in Japan that hide, deny, or ignore mental illness realizing that traditional Euro-American psychotherapy techniques cannot be readily transplanted and applied to all other cultures addressing depression, anxiety, increased illness, intergenerational conflict, and even marital conflict combined with the stress of assimilation and acculturation among Russian emigrants understanding folk beliefs and the importance of the role of the church for many elder African-Americans Therapeutic Interventions with Ethnic Elders addresses the need for practitioners, agencies, and institutions to understand and respect the different characteristics of each elderly minority population. You will examine the unique historical contexts of Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, African, Russian, Navajo, Yaqui, Mexican, Cuban, and Puerto Rican elders and explore the stress factors that come with immigrating, such as finding a peaceful place to live and being confronted by age discrimination and racism. This important book explains cultural behaviors to provide you with effective suggestions for providing optimum care to the ethnic elders in your life.

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.

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.

Each section explores the psychological, spiritual, and social implications of each group's culture, and how those factors inform late life issues, from family support responsibilities to end of life decisions. Each detailed section contains descriptive cases, ethnogerocounseling strategies and discussion questions."--BOOK JACKET.

Evidence Based Treatment with Older Adults: Theory, Practice, and Research provides a detailed examination of five research-supported psychosocial interventions for use with older adults: cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, life review/reminiscence, problem solving therapy, and psychoeducational/social support approaches. These interventions address the diversity of mental health conditions and late-life challenges that older adults and their family members experience. Detailed explanations of the approaches, skills, and strategies employed in each intervention are provided, as are adaptions for use of the interventions with older adults. Vignettes are also used to demonstrate the use of specific practice skills and techniques with older clients. The theory undergirding each approach and the historical development of the interventions is explained, and provides the reader with a rich understanding of background and context of each therapy. In addition, the distinct issues such as depression, anxiety, substance abuse/misuse for which evidence exists are highlighted. Research support for application of the interventions in community-based, acute care, and long-term care settings and in individual and group formats is also discussed. Finally, implementation issues encountered in therapeutic work with older adults are described as are accommodations to enhance treatment efficacy. In sum, this book provides a comprehensive overview of evidence based psychosocial interventions for older adults; it is ideal for students and mental health professionals interested in clinical work with older adults and their families.

In the past decade, evidence based practice (EBP) has emerged as one of the most important movements to improve the effectiveness of clinical care. As the number of older adults continues to grow, it is essential that practitioners have knowledge of effective strategies to improve both the medical and the psychosocial aspects of older persons' lives. The purpose of this work is to present systematic reviews of research-based psychosocial interventions for older adults and their caregivers. The interventions presented focus on a variety of critical issues facing older adults today including medical illnesses (cardiac disease, diabetes, arthritis/pain, cancer, and HIV/AIDS), mental health/cognitive disorders (depression/anxiety, dementia, substance abuse), and social functioning (developmental disabilities, end-of-life, dementia caregivers, grandparent caregivers). For each of these areas the prevalence of the problem, the demographics of those affected, and the nature and consequences of the problem are discussed. The empirical literature is then reviewed. A treatment summary highlights the type and nature of research supporting the interventions reviewed and is followed by a conclusion section that summarizes the status of intervention research for the specified issue. A Treatment Resource Appendix for each area is included. These appendices highlight manuals, books, articles and web resources that detail the treatment approaches and methodologies discussed. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Journal of Gerontological Social Work.