Protocols in Primary Care Geriatrics [Paperback]

This second edition continues its mission of improving practical, clinical knowledge among physicians and others caring for elderly people, while providing updated information on several major areas in the field. Reflecting current practice trends, a new chapter on home care has been added as well as one on comprehensive geriatric assessment. Revised guidelines for falls, incontinence, and drug treatment are also featured. Designed to provide both quick reference to clinical problem-solving schemes and lists, as well as a lucid, readable discussion of basic topics in geriatrics, the books value lies in its combination of brief, readily understandable chapters, a section of notes in outline form, straightforward clinical approaches, didactic exercises, and new updated case studies. Family physicians, primary care internists, and other primary specialists caring for elderly people will thus find the book of great value. It also belongs on the shelf of residents, and individual health care professionals, as well as in nursing homes, hospitals, where it will serve as a clinical reference guide.The striking increase in average life expectancy during the twentieth century rates as one of the major events of our time. We are in the midst ofa social revolution-one rooted not in a new ideology, but in our changing population pat? terns. For the first time in human history, infants in fortu? nate nations like ours can expect to live well into their seventies and beyond. This demographic revolution increases pressure on re? sources, as it also creates further social change and new opportunities for older persons. Such rapid changes have left most people living in the past, with their generally negative attitudes about aging and elderly people. The same outmoded beliefs are embedded in many ofour health care programs. In our youth-oriented culture, most of us still view old people as physically decrepit or in rapid, inevitable decline. Mentally, they are viewed as forgetful olƒV