Abstract

Given medical advances and greater understanding of healthful living habits, people are living longer lives. Proportionally speaking, a greater percentage of the population is elderly. Despite medical advances, there is still no cure for dementia, and as elderly individuals succumb to Alzheimer's Disease or related dementia, more and more people are having to care their elderly parents and /or siblings. Profiles in Caregiving is practical source of information for anyone who teaches caregiving, acts as a caregiver, or studies caregiving.

This book discusses recent research on stress factors associated with caregiving, and what factors impact on successful versus non-successful adaptation to the care-giving role. This is an expanding field in gerontology, and is also of interest to personality and social psychologists studying stress and interpersonal relations. Although there are many books on the cause and treatment of dementia, there has been a book that provides a research investigation into the factors associated with effective caregiving to dementia patients.

• Conceptualizes caregiving as a multistage career whose impact on the caregiver continues to be felt after in-home care has ceased
• Based upon a longitudinal survey of a demographically diverse sample of principal caregivers over a three-year period
• Identifies caregivers who are most at-risk for adverse adaptation to the role
• Describes preventative and clinical intervention strategies
• Identifies post-care risk and issues
• Identifies antecedents to successful adaptation
• State of the art analytic techniques
• Graphic presentation of empirical findings
• Renowned multidisciplinary research team

"This unique book sensitizes as well as informs; its special merit is its artful interspersion of poignant commentary and quotations from individual caregivers, giving personalized meaning and humanistic vitality that can bring tears as it speaks to the heart of the reader. Suitable figures, tables, and photographs. Academic scholarship at its best. Important reading for teachers, administrations, researchers, and clinicians in geriatrics, and an imperative acquisition for libraries servings the needs of such users." --CHOICE

"A study tracing the experience of husbands, wives, daughters, and sons caring for family members with Alzheimers disease . Discusses both common stress factors and the way stress affects the caregivers physical and emotional well-being. The personal stories of four caregivers are woven throughout." --SCI TECH BOOKNEWS

"The authors of this monograph are among the foremost researchers and theorists in health psychology and gerontology, and they have produced a volume that is arguably the most comprehensive view to date of the experience of caring for a family member with Alzheimer's disease (AD).... Profiles in Caregiving could well become an indispensable reference not only for researchers and policymakers but also for professionals whose aim is to ease the burden borne by AD caregivers." --Gail M. Williamson in CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOLOGY

"Profiles in Caregiving is a rich path-breaking book, one that seeks to address research, clinical, educational, and family audiences at one turn. Working through the detailed findings will provide many rich possibilities for clinical insights into caregiving issues in general... Profiles in Caregiving is most useful as a model for researchers on the integration of theory and empirical survey research in a longitudinal context, but also points up the fragmented nature of much of our sophisticated empirical analyses." --Baila Miller, Case Western Reserve University, INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF APPLIED FAMILY STUDIES.