Empowering Frail Elderly People : Opportunities and Impediments in Housing, Health, and Support Service Delivery

This book provides a unique analysis of provider-, environment-, client-, and societal-based obstacles to the empowerment of frail elderly persons in a philosophical framework of social values, as well as an applied framework wherein a variety of international case studies by a distinguished board of contributors provide concrete examples of the feasibility of achieving real empowerment. Empowerment means different things to different people in the context of housing, health, and social service delivery. This book analyzes the various definitions of the concept and practice of the empowerment of frail older persons and then discusses the definitions in a philosophical framework of social values regarding aging and the older person. Each chapter demonstrates the feasibility of achieving increased empowerment of older persons, even those with severe physical or mental disability. True empowerment of older persons in every country requires time, energy, money, and commitment to the goal. This book will be of interest to academic as well as professional audiences in areas of Gerontology, Psychology, Sociology, and Family Studies. Caregivers and policymakers will also find this analysis useful. This is a uniue analysis of the obstacles to and possible solutions for the empowerment of frail elderly persons. Preliminaries......Page 1 Contents......Page 7 Preface......Page 11 1 Empowerment......Page 17 2 Opportunities and Impediments in Housing Health and Support Service Delivery......Page 39 3 Promoting Empowerment in Residential Aged Care......Page 55 4 Reimagining Senior Empowerment in Service Delivery Creative Applications in a Global Context......Page 67 5 Retaining and Expanding Empowerment in the Transition from a Family to a Community-Oriented Support System......Page 79 6 Empowerment in Post Reform Community Care in England and Wales......Page 95 7 Another Way of Living in One’s Own Home......Page 115 8 The Role of the Built Environment in Holistic Delivery of Home and Community Based Care Services to Frail Elderly Persons......Page 133 9 When Community Planning Becomes Community Building Place Based Activism and the Creation of Good Places to Grow Old......Page 151 10 The Rights of Elderly People in a Nursing Home......Page 169 11 Bringing Managed Health Care Home A New Service Strategy for People with Chronic Illnesses and Disabilities......Page 189 12 Elderly Persons with Severe Mental Illness Empowering a Neglected and Growing Population......Page 205 13 Older People with Longstanding Disabilities and Their Caregivers Empowering a Neglected and Growing Population......Page 219 14 Empowerment in Pathways Through Care......Page 237 15 Empowerment of Frail Elderly People and the Vision of a Self Actualized Society......Page 253 References......Page 269 Index......Page 287 An analysis of provider-, environment-, client- and societal-based obstacles to the empowerment of frail elderly persons in a philosophical framework of social values. It features international case studies which provide examples of the feasibility of achieving real empowerment In a mountainous region of southern Appalachia in the United States, an impoverished 75-year-old man, who is functionally deaf but lip-reads proficiently, proudly displays his new walker. Annotation A unique analysis of the obstacles to and possible solutions toward the empowerment of frail elderly persons