Working with the Elderly and Their Carers

An account of counselling elderly people and those who care for them. Most of the work described in the book is with elderly people who have experienced debilitating effects of ageing and who consequently suffer many losses including facing the loss of life itself.

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Taking a psychodynamic approach, Counselling the Elderly and their Carers draws on psychoanalytical ideas and their application to individuals, groups, institutions and society, providing a unique insight into the increasingly important area of working with the elderly and their carers. Focusing on understanding the unconscious as well as the conscious experience of being elderly and frail, it addresses issues such as retirement, deteriorating physical illness and death. The importance of the carer is recognised in this book, and includes accounts of working with individual staff in their role as keyworkers for particular patients work which sheds light on the care giving relationship, its rewards and frustrations, as well as on how abusive practices may develop between carer and patient. There is a description of working with carers in a support group working with managers of a long stay hospital and of meetings between elderly patients and staff on long stay wards. This book is aimed at readers who wish to be introduced to the theory and practice of counselling and psychotherapy in this area.
It will appeal to a wide range of professionals, including counsellors, therapists, nurses, social workers, doctors and geriatricians, and will prove invaluable to both qualified professionals and students.