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There has been increasing interest in recent years in problems of aging, particularly in the problems of psychological adjustment and mental disorder among the aged. Two factors contributing to this interest are the growing proportion of aged persons in our population and the relatively high incidence of mental disorders, both hospitalized and non-hospitalized, among the aged. While much concern has been expressed about improved care and treatment of the aged mentally ill, increasingly attention has been directed toward the development of preventive programs. With the general objective of obtaining information which may be useful in increasing the effectiveness of such efforts, a community survey of mental disorders among the aged was undertaken. This paper is the first in a series of analyses directed toward the following two goals: determining the extent to which readily obtained personal data provide a basis for the economical identification of aged subgroups with differential risks of mental disorders and obtaining clues as to variables possessing etiological significance for these disorders. In this paper, the relationship of mental disorder to marital status categories, particularly the married and widowed, is analyzed.

This paper deals with the role of the health department and more specifically the public health nurse in the care of the aged based upon a study of the sociomedical needs of old people in Ontario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attempts to provide methods of measuring variations between county boroughs in the need for residential accommodation for old people in need of care and attention not otherwise available to them. The method explored in this paper is as follows. First, researchers take the proportions of the population in various sex-age-marital status groups resident in old people's homes as indicating the probabilities that members of these groups require care. Then they compute the Weighted Population of each borough-the population of each sex-age-marital status group being weighted by the proportion of the population of England and Wales of that description living in residential accommodation. It is argued that these weighted populations when related to the size of the boroughs' un-weighted populations, comprise an index of the amount of local authority care required to offset the absence of family care. This index is called the Family Care Index. Secondly, researchers take account of social conditions relevant to their assessment of the need of the authority for provision. Bad housing has been shown to be only slightly correlated with our Social Conditions Index. The principal component most closely correlated with the housing variables of the Social Conditions core relation matrix may be taken account of in the same way as the first principal component of that matrix, namely the Social Conditions Index.

More than ten percent of the U.S. is over 65 years of age today. Recently renewed federal attention to the elderly has brought the prospect of increased policy research in this neglected field. Despite their belated rediscovery, the elderly's basic problems and therefore the main policy issues have remained the same: income maintenance and health care. In addressing these issues, it is important to remember that the aged are not a homogeneous population, but rather, as much differentiated as those under 65 years of age. Given a sustained output in policy studies about this special sector, there should be no occasion for their "rediscovery" again in the future.

The article presents information on a casework with older persons. Older persons have always come for help to the Jewish Family Services of Philadelphia. Recently, the agency has converted its district office to services for older persons. This was done not only in recognition of the needs of older people but also of the professional need to gain additional understanding in giving them help. The Division of Services for Older Persons averages 80-100 applications monthly, the greater number being met through short-time contact. All the services of the agency are available to the older person in meeting his request. In achieving its objectives in working with older persons, it is vital to presuppose skilled, mature personnel who are interested in older person. Unfortunately, there is dearth of trained workers who feel the same challenge and interest in working with older people as they do in working with more youthful. The caseworker serving older persons need to be able to impart to them a deep feeling of interest and concern which all people, but particularly the elderly, respond.

The article discusses some new books on insurance and pensions. The book "The British System of Social Insurance: History and Description," provides a brief and yet comprehensive treatment of British health insurance, widows', orphans' and old age contrib

A prospective epidemiological study on a large population of elderly persons was carried out to investigate the incidence of cerebrovascular attack (stroke) and its relationship to other variables, particularly preexisting cardiovascular disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To deal more appropriately with elderly patients, a program utilizing a newly developed geriatric preadmissions evaluation was employed. The results of experience with more than 990 patients over a 12-month period are reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the validity of some of the assumptions commonly made about the family and social life of old people, drawing on part of the information from an inquiry conducted on this subject. Concerns about the growing number of old people springs partly from the assumption that many of them are isolated from their families and from the community. The main purpose of a study of kinship now being carried out is concerned with the structure and functioning of kinship in Great Britain. This study is of a random sample of people of pensionable age in the borough. Its purpose is to provide data, by means of intensive interview, about the families of older people living in a mainly working class area and to relate problems of ill-health, retirement, income, companionship and so on, to family structure and relationships. The chief finding was that for the great majority of older people the domestic unit and the primary social unit was the three or four generation segment of an extended family in one, two or more households in close proximity. It was impossible to understand the social situation of the elderly except in this context.

Documents an example of William A. Niskanen's ideal bureaucrat by examining a program that was designed to provide low cost meals for the elderly in Miami, Florida. Conception of the budget-maximizing bureaucrat according to Niskanen; Stated purpose of social service centers for elderly persons in Miami; Relationship between lunch-time participation and the characteristics of a center.

The experience of aged nursing home patients in analyzed in terms of the "Carres" format development by Roth.The passage of time and events in broken up into units according to an informal timetable. the bargaining of carees participants seeking to improve their timetable status has special charateristics and uses in this regressive type of career. The conclusion of the study have both theoretical and practical implicatons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Middle-aged and elderly individuals using health care facilities from new resources provided information on the interpersonal network they employed in reaching such decisions. Specifically, we examined factors affecting the networks employed, their composition, the quality of ties that characterized the interaction within networks, and the effect that such networks had on decisions reached. The findings modify and extend earlier inquiries that focus on lay-referral systems and personal-influence networks as these relate to decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article features a discussion on the development of social behavior in the human infant. Four general principles of behavior under which the facts and current theories about human infancy could be organized. The principles were: that the infant is responsive to stimulation; that the infant is an active organism; that the infant's behavior is modifiable; and that the infant in turn modifies the environment, particularly the social environment. The principles apply to the behavior of older as well as younger organisms and to the behavior of one species as well as another.

The article presents a study which investigates the traditional system of social work for hospitalized elderly patients in the U.S. It was mentioned that findings are considered relevant to other adult patients and their families who are referred to Social Service. The traditional social work casefinding practice in delivery of service to hospitalized patients relies mainly on referrals from the medical profession. In addition, the casefinding mechanism may also lead to a reorganization in the utilization of professional services through more knowledge as to when, to whom, and by whom to give service.

Two articles are presented on the new federal provisions for health care for the aged. The first, by Melvin A. Glasser, contends that there are two systems of medical care--one for the rich and one for the poor--and offers some bold suggestions for using the new Title XIX of the Social Security Act to move toward a single system. The second article, by the U. S. Commissioner of Welfare, Ellen Winston, describes the provisions of the new legislation and the significance of some of the amendments for public welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a study on the attitudes of older adults confronted with the decision of whether to move into an institution, a significant relationship was found between the lack of freedom of choice and the subsequent death of the person. The study is an application of Festinger's theory of dissonance, which arises from the assumption that an individual strives toward internal consistency of cognitions about himself and his environment. When inconsistency exists, attempts are made to rationalize it. When attempts to achieve consistency fail, there is psychological discomfort. This discomfort is referred to by Festinger as "dissonance." The study was done on the basis of a questionnaire presented to seventy-five women already accepted as residents of an institution. The first interviews took place about a month before the women moved, the second interviews a month after they moved. At the time of the second application of the questionnaire it was found that three persons of the original group of seventy-five had moved back to the community and that eight persons had died.

The article presents the case of Matthew Kisiel in the light of the concepts that love is the acceptance of another life form without desire to change it, and that the opposite of love is indifference. Author met Kisiel in a state hospital when he appeared before the Social Planning Staff. Author's function was to help him start life a new outside the mental hospital. Apart from alcoholism, which had resulted in his commitment to that institution, there were additional complicating factors. He was 68 years old, a slightly senile paretic, an illiterate, with an English vocabulary of only a few words. Matthew Kisiel arrived in Baltimore from Poland in 1909. His betrothed joined him later and they were married worked as a stevedore money. He fathered seven sons and five daughters. All of them received high school educations. He built himself a large house suitable to raise a big family. He was most proud of his home. He owed nothing to anyone. At the wedding of his youngest daughter, Matthew was introduced to a piano which could play itself. He found the store and bought a mechanical piano and a few rolls of polkas on the installment plan. This was not the thing to do. Poland is a matriarchal society. Capital purchases have to have the consent and approval of the wife. The arrival of the piano under those circumstances was nothing less than a personal insult to his wife.

The extent and nature of the association between chronological age and activity and between activity and morale are explored empirically. Some qualifications of the association frequently posited between these pairs of variables are suggested. Subjects are 250 noninstitutionalized persons 60 years of age and over participating in a longitudinal study of human aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a research in the psychology of old age and aging. For thousands of years life expectancies were 30 years and less, and hardly one-twentieth of the population was over 60. Today 60 years is the normal life expectancy of the new-born child and one out of ten persons is past 60. Ten years hence one-seventh of our people will be at that age. One might say a new race of mankind is emerging--the aged. Researchers have begun to take some notice of this new race because of economic reasons--two-thirds of Americans 65 and over require outside financial assistance. But economic dependency is not the only characteristic of the aged; illness is another. A recent U. S. Public Health survey found chronic disease or gross physical impairment in 58 per cent of all persons 65 and over. While economic security and medical care are the chief requirements of the aged, they need much more in order to be contented. New services, new institutions, new attitudes are called for. The way we regard the aged today is the way we ourselves will be regarded in time to come. Moreover, the social welfare of our entire economy is involved.

The increasing number of old people in the population is reflected in the rising, total of elderly persons admitted to mental hospitals. Whereas in 1931, 2,918 people aged 65 and over were admitted directly to mental hospitals in England and Wales, there were 3,850 such people admitted in 1938 and the number admitted has since then increased further. The social aspects of this problem are by no means of secondary importance. It might be urged that senile psychoses and senility depend on irreparable changes in the body, and especially in the brain, which will occur no matter what the social conditions. But there is convincing evidence that the organic cerebral changes incident to old age are not so directly related to senile dementia that the number of old persons admitted to mental hospitals will depend simply on the prevalence of those changes in the brain. Among the other factors will be social influences, which may cause a rapid increase in the number of persons admitted at a time of social upheaval, such as the outbreak of war. These social influences, however, operate also in ordinary times, and throws light on some of the problems of "normal" old age.

The article presents information on the cost of Medicare for the aged people in the United States. The argument for providing health services to the aged is based on the assertion that these people cannot get the needed services. The recent estimates of hospital utilization by OASDI beneficiaries aged 65 and over are based on a survey made in the winter of 1957 among OASDI beneficiaries. The article indicates that the estimators of Medicare costs believe that hospital care received by the aged may be sufficient now, or that at most, utilization would be increased by 24 per cent under the proposed program. Removal of financial barriers to obtain hospital care would very sharply increase hospital utilization. With the world polarized between totalitarian rule and aspirations for democratic principles, aged should not be deceived as to what they can expect from Medicare, nor the public deluded as to the costs of an effective health program consistent with free enterprise for health services.

It remains to be seen whether the plight of the elderly simply a slogan of pensioner polemics or is it a reflection of social realities. It is still unclear whether the present provisions of the medical, nursing and social services match the needs of the eight and a half million people in Great Britain of retirement age. Their numbers have doubled over the last 50 years from 8% to 16% of the population. The elderly now occupy 44 % of both general medical and mental illness beds in hospitals. In the Great Britain special residential accommodation and home nursing visits have both risen by a third in the last 10 years.

The article focuses on college health centers and Swedish designs for the aged. A College Health Center which is the sixth in a series of case studies from Educational Facilities Laboratories is a nonprofit corporation established by the Ford Foundation in 1958 to help American schools and colleges with their physical problems. Homes for the Aged in Sweden Offer Ideas for Americans, published by the President's Council on Aging, describes one way of providing satisfactory care for older people who cannot live alone. Sweden's solution is to combine the freedom and privacy of independent living with the protection of sheltered are in wall home-like units for six or seven residents which eliminate the institutional features of homes for the aged.