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The questions of gerontology are truly global in scope. In the light of alarming predictions of the difficulties we will face due to population ageing, and with experts across the globe highlighting the benefits of interdisciplinary practice and multidisciplinary considerations for health and ageing, the book is both timely and telling.

The fields of health care, ageing, and social work are often treated as discrete entities, while all social workers deal with issues of health and ageing on a daily basis, regardless of practice specialization. Fifteen original papers by most experienced and prominent scholars of gerontology across the world provide social workers with up-to date knowledge of evidence-based practice guidelines for effectively assessing and treating older adults and supporting their families. The contributing authors paint rich portraits of a variety of populations that social workers serve and arenas, in which they practice, followed by detailed recommendations of best practices for an array of physical and mental health conditions.

Professionals seeking an accessible source of specialized information about how best one can serve the elderly and their families, will find this informative book indispensable. It is hoped that this book will be useful, informative and thought provoking to the researchers, policy makers and NGOs working in the fields of gerontology, social work, sociology and psychology.

Contents: Introduction/Barbara Berkman, K.L. Sharma and Daniel B. Kaplan. 1. Social and health perspectives on global ageing/James Lubben and JoAnn Damron-Rodriguez. 2. Social work with older people in Europe/Angie Ash and Judith Phillips. 3. Australia’s response to population ageing and the development of gerontological social work/Elizabeth Ozanne. 4. Japanese approach to elder abuse/Hanae Kanno and Amy L. Ai. 5. Elders’ expectations of community health services in China/Jinyu Liu and Mercedes Bern-Klug. 6. Advancing social work practice with family Caregivers/Rhonda J.V. Montgomery, Jung Kwak and Jeannine M. Rowe. 7. Engaging older adults in community development/Carol D. Austin, Robert W. McClelland, Jackie Sieppert and Ellen Perrault. 8. Discrimination against older workers/Rita Jing-Ann Chou. 9. Putting age in context/Christina Matz-Costa, Rene Carapinha and Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes. 10. Cultural context of health and well-being among Samoan and Tongan American Elders/Halaevalu Vakalahi. 11. The right not to know: exploring the attitudes of older Iranian immigrants about medical disclosure of terminal illness/Shadi Sahami Martin. 12. Ageing and cancer/Peter Maramaldi and Tamara Cadet. 13. Ageing population and economic growth/Yuvraj Saharan. 14. Population ageing and affirmative policy for the elderly in India/Jaya Shrivastava. 15. Is economic security of elderly a concern for India/Kshipra Jain and Mayank Prakash.