The Encyclopedia of Elder Care: The Comprehensive Resource on Geriatric and Social Care

This encyclopedia has one editor-in-chief, seven associate editors, one managing editor, and 23 advisory board members with a variety of experiences. The preface presents the conceptual framework of four major concepts and 14 subtopics. They are: 1. Society: The social and policy issues important in caring for elders-gerontological health care providers, financing coverage and costs of health care for elders, and organizations in aging; 2. Community: The structural supports and circumstances necessary to care for elderly-special characteristics of various care locations, provider and institutional interactions across the health care continuum; 3. Caregiving and Family: Issues important for family and professional caregivers-caregiver issues, and technology support for elders and caregivers; 4. Patient: Issues specific to diagnosis, treatment, and disease management-clinical assessment, prevention, symptom management, geriatric syndromes and major diseases of the elderly, disease management, issues in providing health care for specific racial/ethnic elder populations, and pharmacology and appropriate prescribing. That is followed by a four page list of contributors. Then there is an alphabetical listing of topics that generally include the subject title, also see topics, internet key words, and internet resources. The topics have varying levels of comprehensiveness. Many are very informative and comprehensive. Pages 691-748 are references; 749-780 are the subject index, and 781-783 are the contributor index. This encyclopedia contains information about issues significant for health care providers caring for older people. It is an excellent reference book.

A comprehensive and well-sourced guidebook to Elder Care. I think this book will take the place of ten others in my library due to the myriad topics which are addressed and the expertise of the contributors.