Routledge Handbook on Ageing with Disability

Mainstream gerontological scholarship has taken little heed of people ageing with disability, and they have also been largely overlooked by both disability and ageing policies and service systems. The Handbook on Ageing with Disability is the first to pull together knowledge about the experience of ageing with disability. It provides a broad look at scholarship in this developing field and across different groups of people with disability in order to form a better understanding of commonalities across groups and identify unique facets of ageing within specific groups. Drawing from academic, personal, and clinical perspectives, the chapters address topics stemming from how the ageing with disability experience is framed, the heterogeneity of the population ageing with disability and the disability experience, issues of social exclusion, health and wellness, frailty, later life, and policy contexts for ageing with disability in various countries. Responding to the need to increase access to knowledge in this field, the Handbook provides guideposts for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers about what matters in providing services, developing programmes, and implementing policies that support persons ageing with long-term disabilities and their families. Review ‘The Handbook on Ageing with Disability is a long-awaited gem of information, research and insights into an area growing in importance but too long ignored. The co-authors are pioneers in this field and they have brought together an impressive international caste of experts. The myriad dimensions and the nuances of aging with a disability, whether intellectual, cognitive, physical, visual, or chronic – are brought together in a masterful collection of prescient chapters. This Handbook is destined to be the "bible" for all of us aging into and with various forms of limitations and disabilities and seeking the latest analysis, data, trends and understanding of this complex yet personal concern.’Fernando M. Torres-Gil, UCLA Professor of Social Welfare and Public Policy‘This Handbook fills a major gap in the knowledge base required to bridge the fields of aging with disability, certainly one of the major challenges for humankind in the XXI Century. The range of topics covered and populations discussed demonstrates the heterogeneity of the aging with disability population and the need for greater attention to common issues in these two areas of research, support and care. This book brilliantly culminates the extensive work the editors have led on this topic over the last 20 years.’Luis Salvador-Carulla, Head of the Centre for Mental Health Research at the Australian National University About the Author Michelle Putnam is a Professor at the School of Social Work at Simmons University in Boston, Massachusetts. She has studied the experience of ageing with disability, focusing on social care and public policy, for over 20 years. Her work has forwarded efforts to bridge the fields of ageing and disability.Christine Bigby is a Professor of Social Work and Director of the multidisciplinary Living with Disability Research Centre at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. Her research is focused on building the evidence base for programmes and practice that support the social inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities.