Counseling Troubled Older Adults: A Handbook for Pastors and Religious Caregivers

Harold G. Koenig, Andrew J. Weaver / Hardcover / Abingdon Press / March 1997

Description:
Counseling Troubled Older Adults is designed to be a pastoral care text for those in training for pastoral ministry as well as a useful resource casebook for those engaged in pastoral work with older persons. The book addresses mental health problems commonly found among elderly people that are presented in case vignette format in much the same style used to train mental health professionals. The case vignettes employ a multidisciplinary approach, integrating current clinical knowledge in psychology, psychiatry, medicine, pastoral care, family therapy, and social work with the latest advances in research on how individuals utilize religion to help them cope with emotional distress in later life. This book is written for persons of all faiths, with sensitivity to the multicultural reality of North America. The topics include normal grief, complicated grief, major depression, minor depression, chronic dysthymia, bipolar disorder or manic depressive illness, suicide, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, age-rated cognitive decline, delirium, early-stage Alzheimer's disease, middle-stage Alzheimer's disease, late-stage Alzheimer's disease, caregiver stress, schizophrenia, psychosis, delusional disorder, alcohol abuse and dependence, over-the-counter drug abuse and dependence, somatization disorder, sexual dysfunction, insomnia, elder abuse, death and dying, and others.