Planning of long-term care (LTC) focusses on four themes: (1) developing priorities to reflect values; (2) setting up human service organizations governed by a set of rules and procedures; (3) choosing objectives to which participants and organizations are commited; (4) mobilizing resources. A conceptual scheme for LTC planning could draw on each of these four structural elements. But they might prove to be a set of separate concepts only linked to each other intuitively, unless they are linked through action processes. The total number of reciprocal relationships between the four planning elements is 12. We have therefore identified 12 different action processes to be examined whenever LTC planning is undertaken. These processes allow information from the four structural elements to circulate between them. For example, priority, organization and objectives are sources of information when choosing criteria for the allocation of resources. Thus the processes form bridges between the planning elements. These bridges must be used whenever planning is undertaken in order to ensure that all the elements are given equal weight. Whichever planning element is used as a starting point for LTC planning, the process knits the structural elements together into a whole. Using our conceptual scheme as a guide, planners can cover the whole field of LTC that it represents.

This work pertaining to gerontological psychology was intended as a reference book for French-speaking students and researchers working in the field of gerontology. The authors present gerontology under various themes, such as socio-demography, physical changes, sexuality, intelligence and memory, personality, psychological well-being, life transitions, loneliness, depression, suicide and organic brain pathologies. All the themes are structured identically. The authors very carefully define and delimit the subject, and then discuss it in terms of the aging process in its psychosocial context. The main themes are very well chosen. Furthermore, the authors took great care in treating the issue from various angles, namely from a physical, cognitive, psychic and social perspective. The clarity and lightness of the text make it a good introduction which will be greatly appreciated by its readers.

This paper reports on a project aimed at creating support groups for caregivers of the frail elderly and assessing their impact on participants. The effect evaluation was based on a quasi-experimental design with repeated measures (n = 120). The results show that participation in support groups did not lower the caregivers' subjective burden, and indeed contributed to its increase. Conversely, such participation appears to have had a stabilizing effect on their level of depressive symptoms. Both these effects, reported at the end of the support group experience, persisted three months later. Various possible explanations of these contradictory results are discussed.

This book is an analysis forecasting the potential conditions surrounding the aging of the post-war baby boom generation beyond the year 2000. The author looks at trends that will play a part in the medium-term development of indicators to the future and elements that could prove critical for aging and old age in the near future. He describes the current situation of seniors based on the ideology of salaried employment in an industrial society. He suggests thoroughly rethinking the individual and collective management of the life cycle by renegotiating the resources and empowerment of work, without sparking an inter-generational dispute. This analysis is intended to be hypothetical rather than predictive.

This is the third edition of a book published at the beginning of the 80s. According to Mishara and his colleagues, as many studies in gerontology have been undertaken in the last decade as the previous 50 years. In order to update the last edition, the authors kept the same format as in the other editions. Leaving aside more recent studies showing the same conclusions as in the earlier editions, the authors instead added studies which present new elements or which possibly may invalidate or confirm ambiguous results from the past. The themes discussed are practically the same as in the previous edition. A new chapter was added on the use of medicines and drugs by the elderly. The chapters pertaining to death and grief are of particular interest. This book, although academic, has a flowing style and is a great added value to a library if the reader does not have any of the previous editions.

Despite its publication year (1991), this volume deserves the attention of facilitators and researchers in the field of gerontology interested in the issue of housing for the elderly in loss of independence. The authors discuss from different viewpoints the concept of congregate housing, a form of living which offers a minimum of support services to older adults with disabilities. The book consists of ten papers of debates, analyses and experiences which sensitize the reader to this alternate form of institutional housing. Without question, this volume is of great interest, and the quality of work from the researchers who contributed to the various articles noteworthy.