Population aging is a consistent global demographic trend. The growth in both the size and proportion of older adults has threatened the sustainability of health systems in meeting healthcare needs of the population. Countries in the Asia-Pacific Region may face even more complex health system challenges due to the diversity in culture, management and leadership styles, composition of health service provision, investment in research infrastructure and innovation adaptation, data availability, and gaps in information technology. The Asia-Pacific is home to more than half of the world’s population and comprises countries across five Asia-Pacific subregions: East and North-East Asia, North and Central Asia, Pacific, South East Asia, South, and South West Asia. The economies are diverse, including six high-income countries (such as Australia, Brunei, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and Singapore), low-income countries (Nepal and North Korea), and middle-income countries. The region also includes some of the fastest-growing economies in the world, including China, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Population aging is a consistent global demographic trend. The growth in both the size and proportion of older adults has threatened the sustainability of health systems in meeting healthcare needs of the population. Countries in the Asia-Pacific Region may face even more complex health system challenges due to the diversity in culture, management and leadership styles, composition of health service provision, investment in research infrastructure and innovation adaptation, data availability, and gaps in information technology.

Mental health has always been a low priority worldwide. Yet more than 650 million people are estimated to meet diagnostic criteria for common mental disorders such as depression and anxiety, with almost three-quarters of that burden in low- and middle-income countries. Nowhere in the world does mental health enjoy parity with physical health. Notwithstanding astonishing medical advancements in treatments for physical illnesses, mental disorder continues to have a startlingly high mortality rate. However, despite its widespread neglect, there is now an emerging international imperative to improve global mental health and wellbeing. The UN’s current international development agenda finalised at the end of 2015 contains 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG3, which seeks to ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages. Although much broader in focus than the previous eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the need for worldwide improvement in mental health has finally been recognised. This Handbook addresses the new UN agenda in the context of mental health and sustainable development, examining its implications for national and international policy-makers, decision-makers, researchers and funding agencies. Conceptual, evidence-based and practical discussions crossing a range of disciplines are presented from the world’s leading mental health experts. Together, they explore why a commitment to investing in mental health for the fulfilment of SDG3 ought to be an absolute global priority.

This stimulating volume examines the many faces of Australia’s ageing population, the social and health issues they contend with, and the steps being taken—and many that should be taken—to help ensure a more positive and productive later life. Individual and societal ageing are conceptualized as developmental in nature, socially diverse, and marked by daily life challenges stemming from the country’s economic structures, attitudes, geography, political landscape, and infrastructure. Wide-ranging coverage (e.g., health, inequalities, employment, transportation) assesses options available to older people, and the role of families, employers, service providers, government agencies, and others in promoting or expanding those choices. The book’s double emphasis on challenges in older people’s lives and opportunities for enhancing their quality of life is on clear display as case studies examine policy issues—and propose solutions—in a societal and individual context. Included in the coverage: · Australian developments in ageing: issues and history. · Cultural diversity, health, and ageing. · Indigenous Australians and ageing: responding to diversity in policy and practice. · Enhancing the health and employment participation of older workers. · Housing and the environments of ageing. · Health services and care for older people. The rich examples in Ageing in Australia contain a depth of understanding and evidence for sociologists, gerontologists and psychologists studying ageing, health care professionals providing care to older people, and policy analysts assessing areas for improvement.

Issues in Aging combines social, psychological, biological, and philosophical perspectives to present a multifaceted picture of aging. Novak illustrates both the problems and the opportunities that accompany older age. This text helps students understand the tremendous variability in aging and introduces them to careers working with older adults. This new edition reflects the continued changes in the way we age. The fourth edition has been updated to include emerging issues in aging. These include the prevalence of HIV/AIDs in later life, current research on mental potential in old age, the creation of age-friendly cities, and new options for end-of-life care. Each chapter begins with a set of learning objectives to guide students in their reading, and concludes with a list of main points, questions for discussion or study, suggested readings, and relevant web sites to consult. Each chapter also includes up-to-date charts and graphs as well as key terms to help students understand the issues presented. Break out boxes reveal the human side of aging through the stories of individuals in real life and in the media.

This book engages with the concept of age-friendly environments, adopting multi-perspectivity to demonstrate how age-friendly environments can contribute to shifting how we think, feel and act toward issues of age and ageing and operate as a vehicle to improve understandings of ageism. Drawing from traditionally distinct fields, the text demonstrates theoretical and applied dimensions of the age-friendly global agenda, with several chapters discussing topics that have to date been underrepresented in age-friendly scholarship, including education, health and justice systems. The case studies encourage critical engagement with the issue of ageism in age-friendly scholarship. It presents a clear understanding of the inequalities, challenges and opportunities of ageing and of the ways international, regional, national and sub-national commitments in health, development and human rights, and are further impacted by, ageing through designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating policies and programmes. The essays utilise a critical and interdisciplinary dialogue to enhance discussion of the age-friendly environment agenda through the inclusion of age-friendly perspectives in addition to its processes and destinations in an ageing society. The book serves as a catalyst to stimulate research, policy and public interest in the physical, social and regulatory environments in which we age and the consequent impact upon health and well-being. It will be of interest to professors, graduate students and undergraduate students in policy, sociology, health, planning and gerontology. It is also recommended reading for policy makers, politicians, think tanks and lobbyists, who are concerned with age all-age-inclusiveness.

Aging is a challenge which countries in East Asia and Pacific (EAP) regions are grappling with or will soon confront. It raises many questions for policymakers ranging from potential macroeconomic impacts, to fiscal challenges of supporting pension, health and long-term care systems, and labor market implications as countries seek to promote productive aging. The urgency of the aging challenge varies across the region, but it will confront all EAP countries in time and early preparation is essential to avoid the missteps of other regions. Live Long and Prosper discusses the societal and public policy challenges and reform options for EAP countries as they address aging. It aims to strike a balance between aging optimists and pessimists. On the one hand, the impacts of aging on growth, labor markets and public spending are not the unavoidable catastrophe often feared. However, minimizing the downside risks of aging and ensuring healthy and productive aging will require proactive public policy, political leadership, and new mindsets across society. The report reviews the evidence on demographic transition in EAP and its potential macroeconomic impact. It addresses the current policy environment including pensions and social security, health, and long-term care and labor markets to assess the risks of 'business as usual'. It also suggests policy directions to promote healthy and productive aging in EAP, and emphasizes that aging is not just about older people, but requires policy and behavioral change across the life cycle.