| Description |
1 online resource (341 pages) |
| Contents |
1. An ounce of prevention -- 2. When less is more -- 3. Doing the right thing near the end -- 4. The trouble with Medicare -- 5. Is a nursing home in your future? -- 6. Assisted living : boon or boondoogle? -- 7. The lure of immoratality -- 8. Making the most of the retirement years |
| Summary |
You've argued politics with your aunt since high school, but failing eyesight now prevents her from keeping current with the newspaper. Your mother fractured her hip last year and is confined to a wheelchair. Your father has Alzheimer's and only occasionally recognizes you. Someday, as Muriel Gillick points out in this important yet unsettling book, you too will be old. And no matter what vitamin regimen you're on now, you will likely one day find yourself sick or frail. How do you prepare? What will you need? With passion and compassion, Gillick chronicles the stories of elders who have struggled with housing options, with medical care decisions, and with finding meaning in life. Skillfully incorporating insights from medicine, health policy, and economics, she lays out action plans for individuals and for communities. In addition to doing all we can to maintain our health, we must vote and organize--for housing choices that consider autonomy as well as safety, for employment that utilizes the skills and wisdom of the elderly, and for better management of disability and chronic disease. Most provocatively, Gillick argues against desperate attempts to cure the incurable. Care should focus on quality of life, not whether it can be prolonged at any cost. A good old age, writes Gillick, is within our grasp. But we must reach in the right direction |
| Notes |
Originally published: 2006 |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 289-330) and index |
| Notes |
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL |
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Print version record |
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digitized 2011 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL |
| Subject |
Old age -- United States
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Old age -- United States -- Planning
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Older people -- United States.
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Aging -- United States
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Retirement -- United States
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FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS -- Aging.
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HEALTH & FITNESS -- Health Care Issues.
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Aging
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Old age
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Old age -- Planning
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Older people
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Retirement
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United States
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
9780674037595 |
|
0674037596 |
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