This revised edition of Therapeutic Activity Intervention with the Elderly: Foundations and Practices (1996) has undergone significant changes from the original text. The book has been broadened beyond a narrow focus on therapeutic intervention to embrace principles and practices that are applicable to professional activity specialists who serve older adults in a wide range of settings.
Since 1996, both the older adult population and the field of gerontology have changed considerably. The population has grown in size and diversity as it will continue to do throughout the first half of the 21st century. With the aging of the 76 million Baby Boomers, activity specialists should be ready for significant changes in the needs, interests, and preferences of the older adults to whom they provide services. Health, longevity, educational achievement, and other cohort attributes will challenge the activity specialist to be more nimble in their expectations of what their clientele will want and what might be unpalatable to them. Other forces such as medical advances, technological change, and an unsteady political economy will undoubtedly challenge the ways that activity services are available, sought, and delivered.
Activity professionals from a wide array of disciplines should find this book to be useful in providing basic information about older adults as well as practical details in the design and delivery of activity programs and services for older adults. Also, course instructors will find the book applicable for general courses for certified nurse assistants and day activity providers.
Instructors' materials available upon request.
Unit I: Introduction
Chapter 1: Population Aging: Impact and Implications of Demographic Change
Chapter 2: Overview of Healthcare and the Elderly
Unit II: The Aging Process
Chapter 3: Overview of Normal Aging
Chapter 4: Social and Psychological Aspects of Aging
Chapter 5: Common Physical Diseases, Illnesses, and Disabilities
Chapter 6: Psychological Illnesses and Psychiatric Disorders
Unit III: Program Planning and Implementation Processes
Chapter 7: Programming for Therapeutic Outcomes
Chapter 8: The Role and Function of Assessment
Chapter 9: Adaptation, Autonomy, and Resilience in Older Adulthood
Chapter 10: Environmental Design for Active Engagement
Unit IV: Categories of Activities for Older Adults
Chapter 11: Leisure Education
Chapter 12: Physical Activity and Health Promotion
Chapter 13: Mental Health Activity Intervention
Chapter 14: Psychological Activities
Chapter 15: Documentation and Evaluation
Chapter 16: Ethics and Standards of Care
Chapter 17: The Future: Trends and Issues
Appendices
