The book summarizes what is meant by theory, and why theory is so important to advancing aging-related research, policy, practice, and intervention, and can keep researchers and practitioners in gerontology abreast of the newest theories and models of aging. It addresses theories and concepts built on cumulative knowledge in four disciplinary areas, biology, psychology, social sciences, and policy and practice, as well as landmark advances in trans-disciplinary science. Since longevity is indirectly governed by the genome it is sexually determined, and because aging is a stochastic process, it is not. Chapters cover major paradigm shifts that have occurred in geropsychology, theories in the sociology of aging, evolutionary theories pertaining to human diseases, theories of stem cell aging, evidence that loss of proteostasis is a central driver of aging and age-related diseases, theories of emotional well-being and aging, theories of social support in health and aging, and other theories such as environmental gerontological theories and biodemographic theories. Many chapters also address connections between theories and policy or practice. The book also contains a new section, "Standing on the Shoulders of Giants", which includes personal essays by senior gerontologists who share their perspectives on the history of ideas in their fields, and on their experiences with the process and prospects of developing good theory.

This book serves as the pillar for clinical care teams to improve health equity among homeless older adults. Interdisciplinary care teams are essential in complex homeless older population clinical practice, as all disciplines must work together to address medical, surgical, behavioral, nutritional, and social determinants of health. All clinicians who treat older adults, from the independent to the frail, should approach problem solving via an inclusive approach that includes social work, pharmacy, nursing, rehabilitation, administrative, and medicine inputs. The social determinants of health that contribute to the complexities of clinical care outcomes cannot be addressed within silos. The book reflects a holistic care model to assist clinicians in the complicated homeless population that is continuing to change in the instability of the homeless environment. The book is divided into 14 chapters. The chapters in are organized by problems most commonly faced by clinicians in servicing homeless populations: mental, social, medical, and surgical challenges. Chapter one presents definition and background of geriatric homelessness. Chapter two discusses chronic mental health issues (psychosis) in the geriatric homeless. Chapters three and four describe neurocognitive disorders, depression, and grief in the geriatric homeless population. The next two chapters explore ethical, legal, housing and social issues in the geriatric homeless. Chapters seven and eight discuss infectious diseases in homeless geriatrics population. Chapter nine is on cardiovascular disease in homeless older adults. Chapter 10 describes care of geriatric diabetic homeless patients. Chapter 11 discusses geriatric nutrition and homelessness. Chapter 12 presents barriers and applications of medication therapy management in the homeless population. Chapter 13 describes dermatologic conditions in the homeless population. Finally, the book addresses end-of-life considerations in homelessness and aging.

Rehabilitation medicine and rehabilitation technology resulting in products and services for disabled people already have a long history and gerontechnology can use these results to find solutions for the general consumer market. This book is useful for life-span development/gerontology classes, as well as higher education such as in the realms of anthropology, human factors/ergonomics, lifelong education, mass media, or medical disciplines including nursing, and the information and communication sciences. Providing care to ill and/or frail elders can challenge the entire caregiving team, including the family technologist. Technologically mediated social interaction introduces its own ethical concerns, including technical security, information privacy, risks associated with failure of one or more components of the service, and changes to the social system in which they are embedded. The book draws attention to virtual environments (VEs) as a research method to study older people’s behavior, in particular in aging mobility studies. The trends of aging societies necessitated ever-increasing needs for information and communication technology (ICT)-related gerontological studies. The Internet of Things (IoT), social networking services (SNS), and big data are at the core of information and communication technologies for health care. Light reflectance value (LRVs) are used to determine value contrast between an object and its background. The book includes a brief description of smart home development, with some well-known university-based examples in the United States, Europe, and Japan. The role of assistive technology (AT) in terms of managing long-term chronic conditions, quality of life (QoL) and health, telecare (TC), and electronic assistive technology (EAT) is also discussed.

This book attempts to build students’ understanding of policy development through a critical analysis and review of policy frameworks, and the policy implementation process. The book is organized into four parts comprising twenty-one chapters. Part one of this book lays out a background as to the current and future demographic trends of older adults and makes the case for the reader that there are a variety of philosophical, political, economic, and social factors that affect public policy development. The chapters help the reader to explore a range of perspectives that define, shape, and impact the development and implementation of public policy. It intends to prepare the reader to critically analyze public policies related to aging. Part two provides an overview to major federal policies and programs that impact older adults and people with disabilities. It examines some historical developments leading up to the actual development and implementation of the policies. Policies include social security, medicare, the Older Americans Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Community Mental Health Centers Act, and Freedom Initiative. The last part of the book outlines specific programmatic areas that flow from aging policies, and specific components that flow from federally mandated policies. Each chapter contains same basic outline: an overview of the programs, specific features and strengths of the programs, gaps and areas for development, and challenges for the future.