Description
Book SynopsisOffers new ways of thinking about our longer lives.
Trade Review"Erickson has chosen a timely topic. As technological brinkmanship enables people to stay alive for many more years than previously, the quality of life during these extra years is being called into question... Erickson's call for better treatment of the elderly during these waning years and the need to make more informed decisions about extending life is an important one... VERDICT: A well-meaning contribution to an extremely important subject." --Library Journal "As part of her research for How We Die Now: Intimacy and the Work of Dying (Temple University Press, 2013), Erickson, an ethnographer of labor, trained as a nurse's aide in order to develop a deep understanding of the daily lives of workers and elders in a Midwestern retirement community. Erickson's research investigates why workers are attracted to their occupations, what they learn from their work, and what sustains and challenges them. For her book, she spent more than two years observing and interviewing chaplains, nurses, residents and family caregivers in the retirement community." - Illinois Wesleyan University Magazine "How We Die Now attempts to make observations regarding the work of death for Americans in the 21st century. Clearly, death experiences are as unique as lives... Erickson bases the greater part of the text upon a multilevel extended care facility and its residents and staff... The brief glimpses into these data were the bright spots of the work. The author touches on why aging Americans may want to avoid extended care facilities, racial disparities, and fears that surround nursing care facilities for the aged. The sort of multileveled facility that is the center of the study is often seen as desirable and preferable to traditional nursing home facilities...Summing Up: Recommended." - Choice
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments1 How We Die Now: Americans Aging and Dying in the Twenty-First Century2 The Paradox of Long-Term Care: We Need It; We Fear It3 Transitioning Together: Living, Working, Aging, and Dying at Winthrop House4 Lessons from the End of Life: What Workers Learn from Helping Others Die5 Mutual Interdependency: Belonging, Recognition, and the Rewards of Caring for One AnotherAfterwordGlossaryReferencesIndex
