Counseling Troubled Older Adults: A Handbook for Pastors and Religious Caregivers - Hardcover

Koenig, Harold G.; Weaver, Andrew J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0687017319 ISBN 13: 9780687017317

Publisher: Abingdon Press, 1997

Synopsis

"Counseling Troubled Older Adults is designed to be a pastoral care text for those in training for pastoral ministry as well as a useful resource casebook for those engaged in pastoral work with older persons. The book addresses mental health problems commonly found among elderly people. Part 2 is presented in case vignette format in much the same style used to train mental health professionals. The case vignettes employ a multidisciplinary approach, integrating current clinical knowledge in psychology, psychiatry, medicine, pastoral care, family therapy, and social work with the latest advances in research on how individuals utilize religion to help them cope with emotional distress in later life. This book is written for persons of all faiths, with a sensitivity to the multicultural reality of North America. The authors are both committed Christians who work as specialists in mental health. Dr. Koenig is a geriatric psychiatrist and researcher in religion and mental health. Dr. Weaver is a clinical psychologist and ordained United Methodist minister who has served rural and urban parishes."

"This book is designed so that the reader may quickly and easily locate information about different mental and emotional conditions for which older persons and their families seek help. It is a practical guide on how to assess problems and what to do about them..." (excerpts from the authors' "How to Use This Book")

"One of the many institutions being called upon to help care for the nation's elderly is the religious establishment. That there are dynamic and intricate relationships between aging, religion, and health can no longer be denied or overlooked. Indeed, much contemporary research demonstrates overwhelmingly that religion and aging are for many American citizens interwoven realities, often of life-and-death proportion. Standing at the interface of religion and aging is a cadre of caregivers--physicians, specialists in geriatrics, nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, professional counselors, clergy, and mental health specialists of many kinds."

"The particular focus of this volume is on pastors and other religious caregivers and the roles they might play in this 'new business' of a nation of older persons, many of whom find this developmental phase of life difficult to negotiate. Their difficulties, as the authors show, take sundry forms--depression, anxiety, substance dependency, psychoses, abuse, and so on. And, sooner or later, all must deal with what some existentialist philosophers and psychologists claim to be the base of most, if not all, of our human dilemmas--death and dying." (excerpts from the Preface by Orlo C. Strunk, Jr.)

About this title

From the Author:

Half of all seniors attend worship weekly--Gallup/95
Increasingly the central pastoral care focus of American and Canadian clergy is the elderly. Seniors will increase in number by 100% in the U.S. and 200% in Canada in the next 25 years. This book focuses on how clergy and congregations can best respond to the special mental health needs of the elderly. The text is designed to give practical guidance on how to identify and respond to troubled seniors. It is framed in case studies with detailed resources for each of the 29 problems addressed.Aloha--Dr. Weaver

About the Author:

Harold G. Koenig is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and of Internal Medicine, and Director of the Program on Religion, Aging, and Health at Duke University Medical Center.

About this edition

• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0687017319
• ISBN 13: 9780687017317
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304