Critical Gerontology Comes of Age reflects on how baby boomers, caretakers, and health professionals are perceiving and adapting to historical, social, political, and cultural changes that call into question prior assumptions about aging and life progression. Through an exploration of earlier and later-life stages and the dynamic changes in intergenerational relations, chapter authors reexamine the research, methods, and scope of critical gerontology, a multidisciplinary field that speaks to the experiences of life in the 21st century. Topics include Medicare, privatization of home care, incarceration, outreach to LGTBQ elders, migration, and chronic illness. Grounded in innovative research and case studies, this volume reflects multiple perspectives and is accessible to lay readers, advanced undergraduates and graduate students, and professionals in many fields.
1. Introductory Chapter: A Need for, and Fruits of, Current, Critical Gerontology Wellin 2. A First-Generation Critic Comes of Age: Reflections of a Critical Gerontologist Estes 3. Critical Questions for Critical Gerontology (and Critical Gerontologists) Moody & Sasser 4. Qualifying the Aging Enterprise: Micro and Meso-Level Studies in Human Service Organizations Miller & Crampton 5. Who are You in Medicare and You?: Examining This Second Person Diamond 6. Who Rules Home Care? The Impacts of Privatization on Profitability, Cost, and Quality Cabin 7. Challenges and Achievements Regarding Outreach to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Elders: Perspectives from Nursing Gabrielson 8. Paid Care-Giving for Older Adults with Serious or Chronic Illness: Ethnographic Perspectives, Evidence, al