Understanding how creative interventions can help develop social connectivity and resilience for older people is vital in developing a holistic cross-sector approach towards ageing well. Academics with a wide range of expertise critically reflect on how the built environment, community living, cultural participation, lifelong learning, and artist-led interventions encourage older people to thrive and overcome both challenging life events and the everyday changes associated with ageing. The book uses a range of approaches, including participatory research methods, to bring the voices of older people themselves to the foreground. It looks at how taking part in creative interventions develops different types of social relationships and fosters resilience.

The many significant technological and medical advances of the 21st century cannot overcome the escalating risk posed to older adults by such stressors as pain, weakness, fatigue, depression, anxiety, memory and other cognitive deficits, hearing loss, visual impairment, isolation, marginalization, and physical and mental illness. In order to overcome these and other challenges, and to maintain as high a quality of life as possible, older adults and the professionals who treat them need to promote and develop the capacity for resilience, which is innate in all of us to some degree. The purpose of this book is to provide the current scientific theory, clinical guidelines, and real-world interventions with regard to resilience as a clinical tool. To that end, the book addresses such issues as concepts and operationalization of resilience; relevance of resilience to successful aging; impact of personality and genetics on resilience; relationship between resilience and motivation; relationship between resilience and survival; promoting resilience in long-term care; and the lifespan approach to resilience. By addressing ways in which the hypothetical and theoretical concepts of resilience can be applied in geriatric practice, Resilience in Aging provides inroads to the current knowledge and practice of resilience from the perspectives of physiology, psychology, culture, creativity, and economics. In addition, the book considers the impact of resilience on critical aspects of life for older adults such as policy issues (e.g., nursing home policies, Medicare guidelines), health and wellness, motivation, spirituality, and survival. Following these discussions, the book focuses on interventions that increase resilience. The intervention chapters include case studies and are intended to be useful at the clinical level. The book concludes with a discussion of future directions in optimizing resilience in the elderly and the importance of a lifespan approach to aging.

Older aged adults face many adversities over the later life course. This edited volume will address the ways in which seniors bounce back from different types and combinations of adversity – termed “resilience”. While research has been accumulating that identifies inherent abilities and external resources needed to adapt and navigate stress-inducing experiences among aging and older adults, gaps remain in understanding the unique elements and processes of resilience. A series of chapters included in this book will address several overarching questions: why do some older individuals/families/communities adapt to adversity better than others; what are modifiable behavioral protective/risk factors related to resilience; and how can we foster resilience at the individual/community level and which approaches show the most promise? The spectrum of aging-related challenges and responses addressed in this book include: mental health; physical/functional health problems; multimorbidity; socio-economic deprivation; social isolation and loneliness; cultural dimensions of loneliness; housing/homelessness problems; and environmental disasters. This book presents cutting-edge science at the conceptual, methodological, empirical and practice levels applied to emerging resilience sub-fields in gerontology. It will also present potential areas of future research, policy and practice linked to these areas. During a period of the most rapid population aging in the US, Canada and many other nations, coupled with heightened global socio-political change, extending our knowledge of resilience will help society to make important adjustments to maximize health and wellness of older individuals. Supporting and enhancing resilience through technological, social and/or community-level advances in geroscience will help those facing adversity to thrive by harnessing, stretching, and leveraging a wide array of potential resources. The promotion of healthier older populations has far-reaching consequences for health care and social/community support systems, both in terms of public health including pandemic response, and the development and implementation of innovations in treatment and practice guidelines.

Ageing, Health and Care provides an international, up-to-date perspective on health and ageing, as well as a comprehensive overview of the health status and experiences of older people. Written by a leader in the field, this textbook covers key questions, such as the fitness of older people in the future, the widening inequalities in the health of older people, and the extent to which health in old age reflects habits and behavior in earlier life. The book includes chapters on physical health, mental health, disability, and lifestyle. Additionally, it offers a synthesis of current policy developments relating to health and social care for older people, and it examines the key debates on the future of health care for the elderly.

A typically pessimistic view of aging is that it leads to a steady decline in physical and mental abilities. In this volume leading gerontologists and geriatric researchers explore the immense potential of older adults to overcome the challenges of old age and pursue active lives with renewed vitality. The contributors believe that resilience capacities diminishing with old age is a misconception and argue that individuals may successfully capitalize on their existing resources, skills and cognitive processes in order to achieve new learning, continuing growth, and enhanced life-satisfaction. By identifying useful psychological resources such as social connectedness, personal engagement and commitment, openness to new experiences, social support and sustained cognitive activity, the authors present a balanced picture of resilient aging. Older adults, while coping with adversity and losses, can be helped to maintain a complementary focus on psychological strengths, positive emotions, and regenerative capacities to achieve continued growth and healthy longevity.

Positive Ageing and Learning from Centenarians evaluates the mechanisms of positive ageing in a uniquely interdisciplinary way to explore the question of how we age and how some people age successfully. Drawing together the findings of recognised longevity researchers from around the world, the book applies an integrated vision to educational and social aspects of human ageing. It examines research into centenarians, and considers most of the disciplines related to longevity and healthy aging and aspects such as education, psychology, philosophy, anthropology, demography, sociology, economics as well as those related to nutrition and biological factors of longevity. The book examines how the results of these scientific investigations could improve the well-being of the oldest olds in the future, especially in the context of ageing societies. It provides an answer to the question of what we can learn from centenarians and what lessons we can from their lifestyle, which can contribute to live longer, better and happier. Based on cutting-edge research, the book will be highly relevant reading for researchers, academics and students in the field of ageing and longevity, mental health research, health science, gerontology and psychology.

Developmental Psychopathology, Volume 3, Risk, Disorder, and Adaptation provides a life span developmental perspective on "high-risk" conditions and mental disorders. Moreover, it examines developmental pathways to resilient adaptation in the face of adversity.

This practice-focussed resource shows dementia care professionals how to harness resilience in their daily practice when working with people living with dementia. Nurturing and developing resilience can hugely improve quality of life for people living with dementia, and as such it is an important tool for practitioners to provide targeted, meaningful support that fits into the lives of people with dementia and care partners. This book guides readers through the key concepts of resilience within the context of dementia and explains the unique challenges and opportunities of developing resilience in this situation. It also provides real-world examples of resilience in dementia assessment and care and suggests clear frameworks for applying resilience in daily practice, as well as template assessment sheets. A practical and accessible resource, this book helps professionals ensure that people with dementia are treated as individuals actively engaged in their own lives and in the care which they receive.

This collection is part of a recurrent series- Insights in Aging and Public Health: 2021. Our global society is changing. Now in the third decade of the 21st Century, the achievements made by scientists have led to major advancements in the fast-growing field of Aging and Public Health. As indicated by the United Nations Declaration of the Decade of Healthy Aging (2021-2030), there is global interest in understanding determinants of healthy aging and strategies to improve the lives of older people, their families, and the communities in which they live. As such, the field of public health and aging must constantly evolve and adapt alongside the ongoing changes in population growth and demographics, social and physical environments, and policy and other drivers of health-related costs. Further, the indicators of risk and markers of success have assumed new meaning as new societal needs/challenges