Although illness is often linked to low morale among the elderly, most persons cope with and adjust to illness. A hypothesized model of favorable family response to illness suggests the importance of resources as mediators to avoid crisis. To test this model, 53 older patients with lung disease and their spouses were interviewed about individual…

Increasingly, the health care needs of older people are dominating the field of medicine and the health care system. The supply of physician gerontologists and geriatricians, the attention they pay to the special needs of the elderly, and the adequacy of their training are addressed in these hearings, which consider a Senate bill to improve the…

A telephone survey was conducted of 12 U.S. pharmacy programs that had been identified as having curricular programs in geriatric pharmacy. The data collected is intended to assist faculty in the Ohio Valley Appalachia Regional Geriatric Center to assess their curricula and determine future directions for the geriatric pharmacy programs. The…

This publication contains the reports of two major public advisory bodies which studied and conducted hearings on mental health needs of the elderly and developed recommendations for public policy to address these needs. The first report reviews current mental health needs and considers the projected needs for dealing with emotional stress during…

Demographic and utilization date are used to project the need for physicians to provide care for the elderly over the next 50 years. The quantitative estimates are coupled with qualitative analyses leading to recommendations for means to deliver the needed services. Estimates are that the United States will require about 8,000 geriatricians by…

The report deals with the design, development, and evaluation of a short-term training program directed toward modifying attitudes and acquiring new information and skills about sensory impairments frequently found among institutionalized elderly people. The training attempted to provide participants with a clearer understanding of the implication…

The selected bibliography contains about 400 references taken from a keysort file of more than 45,000 references, compiled from commercially available data bases and published sources, relevant to gerontology. Those of questionable accuracy were checked or deleted during the verification process. Most references are in English and were selected…

Education and training as related to geriatric services are discussed in terms of present and future needs. Types of educational programs that have been developed to meet specific needs by various institutions, agencies, and/or individuals are described. Recommendations made are: (1) Professional groups should view existing problems and should…

The paper examines that phenomenon of widowhood, which has become a natural attribute of a woman's old age because of her greater life expectancy when compared with her husband. Researchers have discovered that, although problems of widowhood have attracted little serious inquiry, one of every five women who face conjugal bereavement need outside…

Consists of a three-part paper and related materials by the National Task Force on Gerontology and Geriatric Care Education on the topic of the aging of society and health care. Issues covered include public policy, provider support, ethics, practice patterns, research, education, and impact on selected health professions. (CH)

A required eight-week rotation in ambulatory medicine at three clinics that included house calls by medical students is described. The students' evaluation of the curriculum provided information on the effectiveness to teaching strategies and the success of transmitting knowledge about the homebound elderly. (Author/MLW)

A format was devised for nursing home rounds that provides for discussion among staff members and specialists and is aimed at teaching and the resolution of specific patient-care and administrative issues. Many complex medical problems were handled without transferring the patients to an acute-care facility. (Author/MLW)

Research findings have demonstrated the relevance of a home care experience for teaching the interactions of the social, psychological, environmental, and biological factors that characterize chronic illness. Research was conducted in the Home Care Program at the University of California, San Francisco. (Author/MLW)

Compares adult and elderly clients of a Crisis Intervention Service in an urban metropolitan area, which included a telephone counseling/referral service and a mobile intervention team for home assessments. Findings indicated the importance of using a biopsychosocial model, particularly in the assessment of elderly persons. (JAC)

The effect of personal belongings on perceptions of the elderly in institutions was tested through color slides in two groups of medical students. The elderly person surrounded by personal belongings was perceived in a less negative way than the same person in bare surroundings. (Author)