Ebook: Resilience in aging: Concepts, research, and outcomes

Resilience in Aging Concepts, Research, and Outcomes Barbara Resnick, Karen A. Roberto, and Lisa P. Gwyther, editors While medical advances are prolonging the lives of countless older adults, longevity can come at a steep price, such as chronic pain, fatigue, depression, or cognitive decline. To meet this widespread challenge, resilience—the ability to meet and recover from setbacks—has emerged as a promising clinical strategy toward successful aging. The only book devoted solely to the importance and development of resilience in elders’ quality of life, Resilience in Aging offers evidence-based theory, clinical guidelines, case examples, and real-world interventions so professional readers can make the best use of this powerful tool, whether one’s clients are in the office or in long-term care, in need of physical or psychological support, “worried well” or seriously ill. The book’s coverage extends across disciplines and domains, including: • Cultural and ethnic perspectives on resilience in aging. • Resilience on the job for the older worker. • Resilience and personality disorders. • Fostering resilience in chronic illness. • Using the arts to promote resilience in persons with dementia. • Policies to support resilience in an aging society. • A resilience-building crisis response team. This wide-ranging lifespan approach gives Resilience in Aging particular relevance to the gamut of practitioners in elder care, including health psychologists, neuropsychologists, clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, geriatricians, family physicians, nurses, and occupational and physical therapists.

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The many significant technological and medical advances of the 21st century cannot overcome the escalating risk posed to older adults by such stressors as pain, weakness, fatigue, depression, anxiety, memory and other cognitive deficits, hearing loss, visual impairment, isolation, marginalization, and physical and mental illness. In order to overcome these and other challenges, and to maintain as high a quality of life as possible, older adults and the professionals who treat them need to promote and develop the capacity for resilience, which is innate in all of us to some degree. The purpose of this book is to provide the current scientific theory, clinical guidelines, and real-world interventions with regard to resilience as a clinical tool. To that end, the book addresses such issues as concepts and operationalization of resilience; relevance of resilience to successful aging; impact of personality and genetics on resilience; relationship between resilience and motivation; relationship between resilience and survival; promoting resilience in long-term care; and the lifespan approach to resilience. By addressing ways in which the hypothetical and theoretical concepts of resilience can be applied in geriatric practice, Resilience in Aging provides inroads to the current knowledge and practice of resilience from the perspectives of physiology, psychology, culture, creativity, and economics. In addition, the book considers the impact of resilience on critical aspects of life for older adults such as policy issues (e.g., nursing home policies, Medicare guidelines), health and wellness, motivation, spirituality, and survival. Following these discussions, the book focuses on interventions that increase resilience. The intervention chapters include case studies and are intended to be useful at the clinical level. The book concludes with a discussion of future directions in optimizing resilience in the elderly and the importance of a lifespan approach to aging.