Book Reviews

Circles of Care: How to Set Up Quality Home Care for Our Elders
Aging Well: Surprising Guidepost to a Happier Life
Remembering Your Story
Full Circle: Spiritual Therapy for the Elderly
 Honoring African American Elders: A Ministry in the soul Community
 The Next Place
 God Never Forgets: Faith, Hope, and Alzheimer's Disease

 

Circles of Care: How to Set Up Quality Home Care for Our Elders, by Ann Cason; Forward by Reeve Lindburgh
Reviewed by Jan McGilliard, Associate for Older Adult Ministries, Synod of the Mid-Atlantic

At a time in history when one-quarter of American families are involved in caregiving, Ann Cason's book brings a holistic perspective to a tender subject. The Circle of Care refers to all who may become involved in a caring situation: family and helpers, friends and neighbors, health, legal, and religious professionals, even the mail carrier, grocer, or hairdresser. It also embraces the bevy of feelings and events that accompany providing or receiving care.

Cason's vast experience and deep compassion permeate the pages of this excellent guide to caring for someone in their own home. All aspects of care (physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual) are considered and a team approach is advised. Practical, realistic examples fortify the topics which include: arrangements of daily care, assembling a care team, helping the elder accept their new life; enriching the elder's environment, working with mood swings, confusion, and memory loss; easing the transition to a nursing home; caring for and being with the dying.

We all want to age with grace and dignity. Ann Cason reminds us that it is best done with a circle of care. A good companion book is Reeve Lindburgh's No More Words, a memoir of her mother's last years. Anne Morrow Lindburgh's care was overseen by Ann Cason.

ISBN#1-57062-471-2

Quotes: "The goal is not to change anyone but to let all of our various agendas relax into awareness and acceptance. The circle helps both elder and caregivers feel at home, wherever that may be."

"Care is not just one person doing something for another. The attention has to be on creating an environment in which all the members of the circle take care of one another."

"Caring for an old person can be very humdrum without occasional celebrations. Look for excuses to have a party…Uplifted spirits can carry people through untold difficulty."

"The stimulation of people of ideas, or breaks in routines can disrupt a pattern of confusion or a stuck emotion, allowing it to settle or pop open and dissolve. The older person's panic and your panic can thus become the catalyst for developing confidence in yourselves and each other."

"Caregivers can use difficult situations as opportunities to introduce into the elder's life a moment of surprise that prepares the ground for the elder's letting go."

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Vaillant, G.E.(2002) Aging Well:  Surprising Guidepost To A Happier Life From The Landmark Harvard Study Of Adult Development. Boston:Little Brown & Co. (Review by Carl McDaniels)

 This may well be the best book ever to take a long term look at adults in the 20th century. The Harvard Study of Adult Development authored by George Vaillant, MD follows 824 men & women from roughly in their 20's to their 80's. The study started with the Freshman Class of 1938 at Harvard which included 268 men, expanded to include 456 inter-city Boston men, and later took in 90 California gifted women. There were regular physical exams, questionnaires, interviews, and other close contacts over the 60 year period. The very readable book easily breaks out some of the most significant finding something like this:

 SEVEN KEYS TO AGING WELL

  1. Not Smoking, or Quiting Early--at least by age 50.
  2. The ability to Take Life's Ups and Down in Stride--Show Mature Defenses
  3. Absence of Alcohol Abuse--this was deemed one of the most important keys to follow
  4. Healthy Weight--Confirming what most people know already.
  5. A Solid Marriage--really an important key to long living.
  6. Physical Activity--Daily, Weekly over the long haul.
  7. Years of Education---at least 14 years seemed to meant the most + life long learning,of course.

 FOUR ATTRIBUTES OF POSITIVE AGING

  1. Orientation Toward the Future--All aspects planning, hoping, & spiritually.
  2. Gratitude, Forgiveness, and Optimism---Seeing the Glass Half Full--Not Half Empty!
  3. Empathy--See and Feel Things as other Do.
  4. The Ability to Reach Out to Others--Do Things with Others.

 FOUR SUGGESTIONS FOR SUCCESSFUL AGING

  1. Having a Strong Social Network--Staying or getting Connected.
  2. Having an Active Leisure Life---Learning or relearning to PLAY and have fun.
  3. Having an Active Creative Side--Working to bring out the best in you.
  4. Having a Plan for Life Long Learning---Distance Learning,

 ELDERHOSTELS  and much more.

 BRIEFLY---TEN OF THE MOST INTERESTING FUNDING---TO ME ANYWAY

  1. Many descriptive terms were used to look at the aging process: Graceful Aging, Healthy Aging, Successful Aging, Positive Aging, and of course--AGING WELL.
  2. Found there were Three Main Groups: ONE-- Happy—Well;  TWO--Sad—Sick; THREE--Prematurely Dead
  3. Extensive use of life stories through out the book--made for great illustrations from real life.
  4. Good genes didn't account for Better Aging--A Big conclusion.
  5. By age 70 it's how we have nurtured ourselves through out entire life span that takes precedence over nature--genes--another statement for how we live our lives that count.
  6. Those who liked working at age 60, like retirement at age 75.--Makes sense for this group.
  7. Retirement is highly overrated as a major life problem--Most seemed to make the transition OK.
  8. Bad childhood failed to predict bad aging--Another surprising conclusion!
  9. Accentuate the positive --worry less about cholesterol and more about showing gratitude and forgiveness.
  10. People can and do Change---Character is NOT  Cast in Stone!!

 

Vaillant  appeared on NBC's TODAY Show after his book came out in January 2002 to report his findings. There have been reviews in many national magazines including PARADE, in which the author is quoted as saying: "A happy healthy old age lies not in our genes, or in the stars, but rather in ourselves."

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Remembering Your Story by Richard Morgan
This book appeared in a second edition. Published by Upper Room Books, the new edition is based on six years of experience using the first edition. James E. Birren says, "Richard Morgan's book stimulates us to recall the memories of our spiritual journeys and project them into the future." Susan McFadden adds, "As we grow older, we often feel the need to be more intentional about discerning the spiritual paths we have taken through life. "Remembering Your Story" provides a framework for this journey of discernment." The revised LEADERS GUIDE, with a foreword by Rick Moody, describes many innovative activities for congregations and other groups to use. Available from Upper Room Ministries (1-800-972-0433) or on the Web (www.upperroom.org), and at Christian book stores.

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Full Circle: Spiritual Therapy for the Elderly by Kevin Kirkland and Howard McIlveen (Binghamton, N.Y.: Haworth Press, 1999); hardback; $39.95.Reviewed by James Seeber

Full Circle:Spiritual Therapy for the Elderly offers creative, practical advice on setting up group therapy for people with dementia and on providing spiritual care to them and to other elders. The authors, Richard McIlveen, chaplain and pastoral care coordinator at Richmond Hospital in Vancouver, and Kevin Kirkland, a professional music therapist in the same city, teamed up to conduct therapy groups for patients in the Richmond long-term care facility.

Kirkland and McIlveen call their approach "spiritual therapy" because "it is a program for facilitating healing, resolution, remembering and experiencing of the sacred, the complete, the joyous, the whole." Over time, the authors have fine-tuned their approach and have now committed it to print for others to use.

Most approaches to therapy with older adults involve helping participants reflect on their lives - a problematic issue for patients with dementia. The elders in McIlveen and Kirkland's groups shared their stories, stimulated by music and song, by pictures and by other reminders of past experiences. This approach sparked memories in the elders, opening up possibilities for dealing openly with losses, grief and regrets.

McIlveen and Kirkland write that, as a result of these groups, staff at Richmond reported "less weepiness on the ward, fewer outbursts, decreased wandering, a presenting sense of belonging and friendship with other residents, and a cessation of talking about past problems or a decrease in emotional response to them."

Feeling the Presence of God
McIlveen and Kirkland attribute the changes to the increasing feeling among residents of being supported and of the presence of God in their lives. The authors are convinced that a special quality of bonding occurs in groups of the sort they conduct, due to a supercognitive dimension that develops among the participants. Effective group management contributes to such success, but openness to the spirit at work in the group also plays a role.

After reviewing the structure and process of group sessions, subsequent chapters of Full Circle focus on individual session themes, such as feelings, life reviews, special occasions and spirituality. Two indexes - one of names and subjects, the other of hymns and secular songs - round out the volume. Written by people experienced in spiritual care with elders with dementia, this book will be of value to anyone who is called upon to provide spiritual care to residents of nursing homes or assisted living facilities.

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Honoring African American Elders: A Ministry in the Soul Community, edited by Anne Steaty Wimberly: San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1997. 209 pages. $20.95 hardcover.

Excerpted from a review by Ramonia L. Lee

At last there is a resource that deals with African American elders from a faith perspective. This book has long been needed and will be a tremendous help for African American religious communities as they address the needs of the fast-growing population of black elderly. Anne Wimberly lays a foundation by explaining why we honor elders, defining a soul community, and establishing the importance of developing a multidimensional rationale for ministry with older adults.

Wimberly's definition of honor: "Honor means acknowledging the significance of the lives lived by elders and treating them as persons of worth." With honor comes a sensitivity to the needs of elders, beginning by remembering the historic roles of elders in the faith community as well as in the larger community. Elders should be honored as the recipients of care, repositories of wisdom and resourceful participants in community life.

Three things distinguish this book from other publications that focus on working with older adults in the African American community: First, Wimberly provides historical background describing how elderly have traditionally been viewed and treated in the church, family, and society. In a chapter entitled "Tapping Our Roots" Temba L. J. Mafico provides a cultural context for honoring our elders. He challenges African American religious communities to move from a Western worldview, which has promoted individualism and a youth-dominated perspective, to a traditional African worldview of life that values all stages of life, especially the oldest old. Third, Wimberly offers a theological basis for older adult ministry based on her concept of "church as soul community." She defines soul as "the spirit, heart, or character of our being, thinking, and acting in response to God. A concern for relationship is at the center."

This book is an excellent resource not only for those who want to work with African American elders, but also for anyone who seeks to meet the needs of elders in any faith community.

Ramonia L. Lee is program associate with Baptist Senior Adult Ministries in Washington, D.C. Ramonia has works with a Presbyterian congregation in the D.C. area.

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The Next Place, by Warren Hanson, 1997. Waldman House Press, Inc., 525 North third St., Minneapolis, MN 55401. $14.95.

Here is a small, beautifully illustrated volume you will want for yourself and for those you love. A young couple close to our daughter gave this slim book to Carey as a send off for her junior year at College of Wooster. The immediate response of those who read this book is to get in the car, drive to a favorite bookstore, and order half a dozen.

From the bookjacket: "The Next Place is an inspirational journey of light and hope to a place where earthly hurts are left behind. An uncomplicated journey of awe and wonder to a destination without barriers. Lose yourself in the uplifting sense of comfort and serenity. Embrace the joyful spirit of oneness. Then pour yourself into the lives of those you love. The Next Place is above all, a celebration of life."

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God Never Forgets: Faith, Hope, and Alzheimer's Disease, edited by Donald K. McKim,

Reviewed by Rev. Miriam Dunson, Associate for Older Adult/Family Ministry, Louisville, KY

---a must for pastors in congregations, chaplains in retirement communities, families and friends of persons with Alzheimer's Disease. There are many stories of the struggles of those who cope with this debilitating disease, and questions such as "Why me? Why now? Why this particular disease that has no cure? Where is God? How is it possible to find anything redemptive amidst all the grief and suffering?" McKim's book is thorough, pastoral, realistic, and practical in its approach to these questions.

This volume is the outcome of a conference held at Memphis Theological Seminary in October, 1994. Focusing on biblical, theological, and pastoral care dimensions of the disease, three theologians explored the question: "How does the Christian believer put together the stark realities of Alzheimer's Disease with the Christian understandings of the human person, God, and what the church believes about God's grace, salvation, and life eternal?" Dr. James W. Ellor summarizes the dilemma:

"The human spirit is at once a source of who we are as persons--our creativity, our uniqueness, our self-transcendent abilities, and at the same time reflective of our finite nature as persons living in God's world. This spirit does not leave the person who contracts Alzheimer's Disease. However, our skills for understanding the psyche and spiritual aspect of the person must find new forms of expression in order to perform our ministry functions…Caregivers and members of the community of faith need to learn new skills for support of this special group of God's children."

The book deals realistically with the disease, the circumstances of those involved, and explores biblical views on diseases and healing, on the faithfulness of God, what memory is to the personhood of individuals as well as community, and identifies where is the hope. The most powerful reminder in the book is that God does not forget, that God always remembers who we are, and God is always present, if we but have eyes to see and ears to hear signs of God's presence.

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Last Updated 2/15/03
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