Aging Forward: A New Path for Health, Technology, and Community - Softcover

David Dunkelman (author) & Martha Dunkelman (author)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1956801030 ISBN 13: 9781956801033

Publisher: Health Professions Press, 2023

Synopsis

America has an aging challenge. As baby boomers enter advanced age, the shortfalls of our current systems are increasingly clearer, and if nothing changes, we are woefully unprepared for a world with more older adults than ever before. Aging Forward confronts this reality and presents a vision for the future that will spark discussion, innovation, and change.

Delving into the aging phenomenon, this book describes the many substantial shortfalls in how aging services are delivered in contemporary America―from the perspectives of government, public health, business, culture, family, and individual concerns. Describing how our aging demographic has outgrown the traditional medical/institutional approach to caring for elders, it argues for reframing our thinking and rebuilding our service infrastructure around the management of chronic conditions rather than acute medical care. Focusing on data-driven technology and communication can allow a team of professionals to support any aging individual so that he/she can remain within the community and only visit “care institutions” for acute medical needs. The focus is on finding better ways to help older adults achieve and maintain a continuing sense of well-being―or benescence―that is achieved through more effective services and policies.

This vision requires a radical change in every sector of society, but Aging Forward shows it is possible, as demonstrated in businesses and technologies that have successfully accomplished similar transformations in a very short time. The shift is already happening before our eyes, but under the radar. Aging Forward brings it to the forefront to help supercharge the future of aging.

About this title

About the Author

David Dunkelman, M.S., J.D. was the founding President and CEO of The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Campus, one of the US’s largest and most multifaceted campuses for older people. The campus was the first such organization to be named a winner of the national Peter F. Drucker Award for Innovation in Nonprofit Management.

Among his many individual awards are the Community Leadership Award from the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies, Buffalo (2013), and the Dr. Evan Calkins Meritorious Service Award for “lifetime contributions to the field of aging,” presented by the Western New York Network in Aging, Inc. (2007).

Using creative problem-solving techniques developed at the State University of New York at Buffalo, Dunkelman has consulted nationally with more than 25 communities, helping them to develop strategic approaches to facility and programmatic design for older people. He writes and speaks about aging in America.

Martha Dunkelman, Ph.D., is a writer and editor who has written numerous articles, reviews, and brochures, as well as serving as book editor for an online periodical. She has also written and edited materials for the Educational Testing Service and the College Board. She has spent many years in teaching and administration as a professor at Wright State University, the University at Buffalo, and Canisius College.

Edition details

• Publisher: Health Professions Press
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1956801030
• ISBN 13: 9781956801033
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272