Profiles in Caregiving The Unexpected Career

More and more people are being pressed into service as caregivers for their siblings, parents, or spouses with Alzheimer's or other Dementia. This landmark work traces the experiences of family members in the caregiving role, identifying common stress factors and discussing how stress affects the caregiver's well-being. This book is a practical source of information for anyone who teaches caregiving, acts as a caregiver, or studies caregiving.

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

Setting the Stage
Caregiving Careers and Stress Processes
An Empirical Inquiry into Caregiving
The Organization of Stressors in the Lives of Caregivers
The Natural History of Care-Related Stress
Stress Proliferation
The Containment of Care-Related Stressors
The Transition to Institutional Care
Adaptation Following Institutionalization
The Timing and Settings of Patient Death
Bereavement
Clinical Interventions and Caregiving Careers
Implications for Public Policy and Society
A Review and Overview of Caregiving Careers
The Care-Related Stress Process