Engaging with Ageing

With a population that is living longer and more healthily than ever before, the challenge is how to manage those increasing years of old age in ways that suit each person. This includes considering the varied individual combinations of positive and of problematic circumstances that can come with ageing, while accepting that it is just another, maturing stage of life.

Engaging with Ageing; What Matters as we Grow Older has tackled that challenge in a uniquely comprehensive way, by taking a practical and balanced approach to all of the main aspects of ageing facing both women and men, and bringing them together within a single book as a handy resource both for those people who are growing older, and for those who care for ageing people in some way, whether as family or as professional carers. It does not resile from addressing the tough questions, as well as covering the sorts of opportunities that can open up, and includes the following topics:

• changes in appearance,
• physical condition,
• mind, memory, and brain power
• what happens, in case of dementia,
• the working life,
• retirement options,
• the juggling role of a grandparent,
• lifestyle choices,
• sex and sexuality,
• social life,
• surviving loss of a partner, and of an adult child
• what centenarians can teach us
• care needs and resources,
• habitats, and
• planning for what would work personally as a good death

For ease of use, this book is set out along the lines of a travel guide for people who want or who need to explore the new country of the old. As such, it has:

• a separate chapter for each main aspect,
• sub-headings for quick location of topics,
• handy top tips for key aspects of ageing covered in each chapter,
• a readable style, and
• human interest with relatable examples, drawn from the media, of people who have adapted to various aspects of ageing in a variety of ways.