Aging and Eldercare in More Developed Countries

Abstract

Successful aging can be enabled through a knowledge of what elders need to remain interdependent with their families, communities, and societies. But the rapid growth of the elderly populations in both the more and lesser developed countries is raising demands for eldercare and requiring brand new ways of assuring its success at these multiple levels of social organization. Two unifying themes in this special issue are (a) the relationships of health, illness, functionality, and disability to eldercare in old age; and (b) the evolving roles of family, community, and nation state in eldercare. All the articles in this special issue seek to foster new theory and new practice in eldercare. The authors believe that locally successful answers will promote global solutions when culturally appropriate adaptations are made. All cultures have much to teach.