Publications

Sunbelt Retirement. By Peter A. Dickinson. E.P. Dutton News, 2 Park Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1978. 338 pp. Biblio., annot., index, cloth edition: $10.95; paperback: $4.95.

For those who fantasize about retiring to an area where snow is rare and winters short, Peter Dickinson's new book is a must. The two-time winner of the National Press Club award for "excellence in consumer reporting" and former Special Investigator for the U.S. Senate Committee on Aging has done his homework.

Sunbelt Retirement is a comprehensive guide that tells the reader everything he needs to know for successful retirement in each of the 13 Sunbelt States-North and South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and southern California. Each State, including over 500 cities and towns, is evaluated individually as to climate, housing, cost of living, taxes, quality of medical care, cultural and recreational opportunities, specialized services for older adults, and ethnic and political characteristics of the people. A rating scale devised by the author shows at a glance which areas are suited to the personal wants and needs. of the reader. Mr. Dickinson, who contends that retirement should be the beginning of an exciting new phase of life, has traveled extensively throughout the Sunbelt and offers candid observations on the advantages and disadvantages of each major retirement area.

According to Dickinson, the Sunbelt is luring people twice as fast as the rest of the country. Latest Census Bureau estimates indicate most Americans now live in the South or West. By 1980, he reports, six of the country's largest cities will be in the area from Texas to California (Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, San Diego, San Antonio, and Phoenix) and the South and West will have a majority of seats in the U.S. House of Repre

sentatives for the first time in history. And what Dickinson considers especially significant is the fact that seniors have a substantial share of political clout in the South and West. Over-50 voters, he says, are numerous enough to swing any issue and elect any candidate and in the next few years their votes will have even greater impact. Recognizing this power shift, the Federal government is pumping more money southward. In fiscal year 1976, the Southeast received $9.5 billion more in Federal aid than it paid in taxes and the West received $8.7 billion more. Much of this money was paid in Social Security pensions to retirees, many of whom spent their working years in the North but were drawing their benefits in the South.

Business and industry are also responding to this growing political and economic power and are building housing, providing recreational equipment, and sponsoring programs catering to seniors.

The author stresses the importance of the retiree giving serious thought to his financial situation, health requirements, hobbies, and preferred lifestyle before arriving at a final decision on his retirement haven.

Like Mr. Dickinson's previous works, this book is well-researched and well-written. The author's enthusiasm makes a potentially tedious topic entertaining and fascinating. Sunbelt Retirement is an indispensable guide for every retiree looking for his place in the sun.

Patricia Rowe

Safety of the Elderly Program Kit. Order Department, National Safety Council, 444 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611. $1.74 ea.

Accidents are the primary cause of crippling and disabling, and the third leading cause of death for older people. Twenty five percent of all pedestrian deaths, 82 percent of all falls in the home resulting in fatalities, and 28 percent of deaths by fire occur to the

65 and over population, although this group constitutes only 11 percent of the total population.

To meet the need for educating the older population on accident prevention, the National Safety Council has published a revised edition of the "Safety of the Elderly Program Kit." Designed for program leaders, it explores the problems of accidents and the elderly and suggests precautions that can be taken to lessen these accidents.

The Kit contains background information on falls, fires, flammable fabrics, safety retirement planning, pedestrian safety, safety on buses, and the misuse of prescription and overthe-counter drugs by the aged.

In addition to safety information, the Kit provides instructions and ideas on how to plan and present an effective safety program for older adults. Also contained in the accident prevention folder is a list of national organizations which could offer help in organizing and promoting community programs or supply additional information.

Do Yourself A Favor. June Hall and Ellie Welch. Morville House, 100 Norway St., Boston, Mass. 02115. 1976. 17 pp. illus, biblio. $1.25.

The booklet emphasizes the importance of exercise in improving digestion, circulation, and respiration.

It is printed in oversize type for ease of reading.

The authors are two nurses who have worked extensively with the elderly in the fields of health education. mental health, and social services.

Family, Bureaucracy, and the Elderly. Edited by Ethel Shanas and Marvin B. Sussman. Duke University Press, 6697 College Station, Durham, N.C. 27708. 1977. 233 pp. Annotated. $12.75.

The emergence of social gerontology as a major academic pursuit following World War II has been accom

Publications

panied in recent years by a major emphasis on the study of the family as a social institution.

Growing concerns over the precarious position of increasing numbers of older persons in industrial societies has had its impact on the academic world as well as on professional social work.

The interrelationships between the family, its aging members, and the bureaucratic state are of considerable complexity, especially in industrial societies marked by fragmentation, alienation, the decline of traditional belief systems, and the geographical mobility of populations.

The social welfare state provides minimum services to its aging population in the form of old age pensions and residential care for those unable to care for themselves. However, there exists a growing gap between the care provided the aged through formal services extended by the state and the informal traditional family role. Although the traditional role of the family, which Michael Anderson discusses in his contribution on care of the aging in Victorian England, has been overstressed in literature, it is one that contemporary families are increasingly unable or unwilling to

assume.

Given this situation, there exists an imperative need to have the respective roles of the family and the state clarified in regard to the position of the aging. Shanas and Sussman's collection of essays represents an effort to understand the relationships between the aging and the social systems of modern society, with an important focus on the role the family can play by acting as intermediary between the aging and the bureaucratic state.

Virtually all the contributors to this volume, whether they deal with theoretical concerns or case studies of various national approaches to the problem, are involved in determining linkage possibilities between the aging, the family, and the bureaucracy.

In their concluding essay, Shanas and Sussman emphasize the need for bureaucracies to become less formal and more flexible in their delivery systems for the aging and to bolster in every way possible the familial structure as a medium through which aging needs can be accommodated.

Shanas and Sussman's compilation of essays, which also includes a substantial contribution on intergenerational transfers and the bureaucracy by Juanita M. Kreps, is a scholarly overview of present and future developments concerning formal and informal relationships between the aging and the bureaucracy, and the role embodied in this relationship by the family.

Norman Lederer

Dean of Occupational Education
Washtenaw Community College
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Counseling Older Persons: Careers,
Retirement, Dying. By Daniel Sinick,
Ph.D. Human Sciences Press, 72
Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10011.
1971. 112 pp. Biblio., append.

The increasing proportion of older persons in the population has been accompanied by recognition of the importance of specialized counseling. This volume focuses on career changes, retirement and its adjustment, and death and dying.

The section on career counseling explores the characteristics of the older employee, some of the motivations behind career changes, the necessity for generating self-confidence in the older worker, and how he can develop new skills and interests while overcoming employment obstacles. Some of the factors involved in the development of second or third careers include sociological, technological, and economic changes in society. Notable among these trends are retirement at earlier ages, earlier completion of families, disruption of families by divorce as well as death, the feminist movement, and inflation. Also mentioned is the fact that in business and industry workers are being re

placed by automation while company mergers and acquisitions are putting others out of work.

Dr. Sinick asserts that in addition to the trends mentioned above there are personal reasons that move people out of one career and into another. Counselors and clients need to recognize what he terms "avoidance motivations and approach motivations," or "desires to get out versus drives to get in." Similarly, he adds, a rational versus an emotional foundation for career changes must be distinguished.

The chapter on retirement counseling points out that many people approaching retirement need counseling to help them plan for the realities of role adjustments, opportunities for the best use of their time, and the decisions regarding housing, health, finances, and legal affairs. Dr. Sinick contends that the predominance of the work ethic in our society encourages negative attitudes toward retirement. Some even regard retirement, he notes, as tantamount to death. Counselors as well as clients may have difficulty in accepting the concept that retirement is a natural period in normal life development. Clients, the author feels, can only be helped by counselors who are free-or at least aware of biases, who appreciate the capabilities as well as limitations of older persons, and who accept retirement as a worthwhile stage in life development.

The section on death and dying stresses that counselors face a special challenge in assisting dying persons and their families. "The challenge can be surmounted," the author explains, "if counselors have some understanding of pertinent principles and dynamics, self-understanding with respect to dying and death, and sensitivity to interactions with dying persons and significant others." In this chapter, he examines terminal illness, psychologist Kubler-Ross' five stages of dying, medical and familial dilemmas, bereavement, and suicide.

There are 33 million people 60 years of age and over in the United States. Their number increases daily. Congress, adopting the Older Americans Act of 1965, and subsequently amending it, has taken due notice of them.

AGING, official publication of the U.S. Administration on Aging, reports on programs for, by, and with this large and important segment of our population. It reports on what States, area agencies on aging, and foreign countries are doing in the field.

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