Religion, Spirituality, and Aging: A Social Work Perspective

by Moody; Harry R.

• ISBN13: 9780789024992
• ISBN10: 0789024993
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2005-10-14
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Learn how to make a more positive impact with your social work with the aged Religion is an important coping mechanism for many aging adults. Religion, Spirituality, and Aging: A Social Work Perspective presents the latest research that shows how religion and spirituality can improve quality of life for elders. Respected social work researchers and scholars provide insight and practical methods for fostering positive aging while also considering how spirituality and religion can affect practitioners themselves. The full range of advantages and ethical implications are discussed in clear detail from a social work viewpoint. Case studies plainly illustrate the positive impact that the inclusion of spirituality and religion in an aging person's life may have on their physical and mental welfare. Organized social work in the early twentieth century actively tried to distance itself from its roots as a form of religious charity in favor of becoming a scientific and professional endeavor. Religion, Spirituality, and Aging once again bridges the gap between social work and spiritual matters by presenting penetrating articles that discusses the issues of the aging soul while examining ways to improve care. Creative strategies are offered to contribute to the spiritual side of aging while considering every implication and ethical question. The compilation is extensively referenced and includes helpful figures and tables to clearly illustrate data and ideas. Religion, Spirituality, and Aging discusses: the latest social work trends and attitudes toward spirituality prayer, meditation, and acts of altruism as interventions an empirical study of how social workers use religion and spirituality as an intervention ethical considerations and best practices religion and spirituality during long-term care the Postcards to God” project dreams and their relationship to the search for meaning in later life a spiritual approach to positive aging through autobiography dementia and spirituality creating new rituals for sacred aging spiritual master Henri Nouwen's principles of aging--and his approaches to caring for older people an interview study on elders' spirituality and the changes manifested in their views of religion Religion, Spirituality, and Aging is a remarkable reminder that elders are our future selves. This erudite, well-reasoned examination of aging and spirituality from a social work perspective is crucial reading for social workers, human service professionals who work with the aged, and gerontology scholars.

Table of Contents

About the Contributors	xv
Foreword	xvii
Introduction: Knowledge, Practice, and Hope	1	(10)
Harry R. Moody
RESEARCH
Research in Spirituality, Religion, and Aging	11	(30)
David O. Moberg
Religion, Spirituality, and Aging for ``The Aging'' Themselves	41	(10)
Henry C. Simmons
Religion and Coping in Older Adults: A Social Work Perspective	51	(18)
Holly Nelson-Becker
Religiosity as a Mediator of Caregiver Well-Being: Does Ethnicity Make a Difference?	69	(16)
Carmen L. Morano
Denise King
``Religion Is the Finding Thing'': An Evolving Spirituality in Late Life	85	(20)
Susan A. Eisenhandler
Religious Congregations as Social Services Providers for Older Adults	105	(26)
Ram A. Cnaan
Stephanie C. Boddie
Jennifer J. Kang
Guided by Ethics: Religion and Spirituality in Gerontological Social Work Practice	131	(24)
Vicki Murdock
PRACTICE
Caregivers' Use of Spirituality in Ethical Decision-Making	155	(18)
Terry L. Koenig
Spirituality and Social Work in Long-Term Care	173	(12)
Marty Richards
Geriatric Care Management: Spiritual Challenges	185	(18)
Leonie Nowitz
Postcards to God: Exploring Spiritual Expression Among Disabled Older Adults	203	(20)
Mark Brennan
Sarah B. Laditka
Amy Cohen
Creating Sacred Scenarios: Opportunities for New Rituals and Sacred Aging	223	(10)
Richard Address
Culture Change in Long-Term Care: Educating the Next Generation	233	(16)
Dwight Roth
SEARCH FOR MEANING
Autobiography as a Spiritual Practice	249	(22)
John-Raphael Staude
Dreams for the Second Half of Life	271	(22)
Harry R. Moody
A Pastoral Understanding of Positive Aging	293	(8)
Samuel R. Seicol
Land of Forgetfulness: Dementia Care as Spiritual Formation	301	(12)
Wayne A. Ewing
Caregiving and Our Inner Elder: Insights from a Spiritual Master	313	(6)
Richard Griffin
Living with Elder Wisdom	319	(12)
Eugene Bianchi
Index	331