Reinventing care : assisted living in New York City / David Barton Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, David Barton.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Older people--Long-term care--New York (State)--New York.

Older people.

Assisted Living Facilities.

Aged.

Older people--Long-term care.

New York City.

Long-Term Care.

Health Services for the Aged--organization & administration.

New York (State)--New York.

Medical Subjects:

Assisted Living Facilities.

Aged.

New York City.

Long-Term Care.

Health Services for the Aged--organization & administration.

Physical Description:

xv, 208 pages ; 23 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Nashville : Vanderbilt University Press, 2003.

Summary:

Encompassing the largest, most concentrated population of elderly in the United States, New York spends more per person caring for its seniors than any other urban center. Yet, while the size of the city's care system boggles the mind, it nevertheless contains the same elements that exist in other metropolitan areas and thus provides valuable lessons for the nation as a whole. In Reinventing Care, Smith draws on twenty-five years of research, including hundreds of interviews and visits to representative facilities, to examine the realities of assisted living in New York City. He provides a succinct overview of how care is presently organized for New York's aging population and traces the history of the system up to the present. Among the key issues he addresses are the role of market forces and government regulation, the impact of class differences on access to quality care, and the ways in which perceptions of community affect the creation and management of assisted living programs. At the heart of the book are ten fascinating case studies, half of them focused on private-pay facilities and the other half on public-pay institutions. While finding that the actualities of assisted living rarely match the rhetoric of its proponents, Smith sees much to admire in its goals. He suggests tactics and strategies -- such as promoting family- and community-based models of assisted living and adopting a standard of licensure for certain facilities -- that could point the way to a better future.

Contents:

Growing old in a city

A brief history of care

Emergence of the killer application

Markets, margin, and mission

Private-pay assisted living

Publicly supported assisted living

A future for care.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 191-198) and index.

ISBN:

0826514286

0826514294

OCLC:

51607891