Handbook of Social Work in Health and Aging

The fields of health care, aging, and social work are often treated as discrete entities, while all social workers deal with issues of health and aging on a daily basis, regardless of practice specialization. The Handbook of Social Work in Health and Aging is the first reference to address this reality by compiling the most current thinking on these subjects in a single volume. With the population of older adults increasing as rapidly as new possibilities for their care, professionals need an accessible source of specialized information about how best to serve the elderly and their families, and they will find this authoritative handbook indispensable.

In 100 original chapters, the most experienced and prominent gerontological health care scholars in the United States and across the world provide social workers with up-to-date knowledge of evidence-based practice guidelines for effectively assessing and treating older adults and supporting their families. The contributing authors paint rich portraits of a variety of populations that social workers serve and arenas in which they practice, followed by detailed recommendations of best practices for an array of physical and mental health conditions. Its unprecedented attention to diversity, global trends, and implications for research, government policy, and education make the publication of such a compendium a major event in the field of gerontological social work.

Ambitious and multi-dimensional, this handbook represents the best research on health and aging available to social workers today.

Barbara Berkman is the Helen Rehr/Ruth Fizdale Professor of Health and Mental Health at Columbia University School of Social Work, and Principal Investigator and National Director of the Hartford Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholars Program. In recognition of her research and practice in social work and geriatric health care, she has been named a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and of the New York Academy of Medicine.