The Care of the Older Person

A readable, engaging and thought-provoking book that offers a broad overview of ageing and aged care,while at the same time providing detailed and relevant clinical information.

Glenn Duns, MDCM, FRACGP,MPH, Melbourne

The new Fifth edition of The Care of the Older Person, written by eminent experts, details stumbling blocks and disease processes encountered by older people, including frailty and loss of mental acuity. Strategies to mitigate, and even avoid, such conditions, including possible changes in lifestyle, which I have spent a lifetime advocating, are detailed, as well as how to care for persons who are living with such conditions.

Joe De Sena,Founder and CEO of Spartan

The fifth edition of The Care of the Older Person, edited by Ronald Caplan, MD, and authored by McGill faculty, is an excellent resource for the improvement of health and nutrition and the diagnosis and treatment of disease in the geriatric patient. Brief clinical vignettes solidify the principles covered in each chapter and highlight differences in this population. As we enter the “older person” age group, I greatly appreciate the authors’ and editor’s careful attention to all the elements of patient care, from assessment with the frailty index to application of care pathways ensuring optimal outcomes despite multiple comorbidities, impaired physiologic reserve and functional status. Ethical issues and patient values are also well incorporated into decision-making. I recommend this book to all those interested in the care of this vulnerable population-physicians, advanced care providers, nurses and students.

Mary C. McCarthy, MD, FACS, MAMSEProfessor Emeritus
Wright State University School of Medicine

The Care of the Older Person is a remarkable book on many levels. In addition to being clearly written, it explores areas that do not even appear on the average practitioner’s radar. There is an entire chapter on the many aspects of building a residence for older people; there is another chapter on the relative merits of cancer screening for this and that condition; there is a chapter on the psychology of getting older, becoming disabled, and obviously, coming closer to dying. These are topics that many practitioners would rather leave to others. Yet, as the saying goes, no snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible. All practitioners (except perhaps pediatricians) need a passing knowledge of the information in this book. I can well see this work becoming part of medical school curricula.

Ronald Grelsamer,Clinical Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY.

The book is much more than a typical medical textbook. It delves deeper and wider into the important question of what can be done to improve all aspects of the lives of older persons in our world today. The latest edition of this comprehensive textbook offers a wealth of current information. It should be available to all who care for older persons.

David E. Wesson,MD,Emeritus Professor of Surgery Baylor College of Medicine