Growing in Age - eBooks.

Growing in Age
Aging in today’s society

By Anne Millar

An inspiring, practical, and compassionate guide to aging well, offering wisdom for older adults, their families, and those who care for them.

This book will help you:

• Challenge stereotypes and embrace the positives of aging.
• Understand how society’s attitudes influence the experience of growing older.
• Navigate changes in relationships, health, and lifestyle in later life.
• Support older family members with dignity and compassion.
• Cope with grief, loss, dementia, and end-of-life issues.
• Strengthen spiritual well-being through every stage of aging.
• Leave a meaningful legacy for future generations.

Features

• Draws on decades of nursing, counselling, and pastoral care experience.
• Covers emotional, physical, relational, and spiritual aspects of aging.
• Offers practical strategies for families, carers, and professionals.
• Includes real-life stories, reflections, and case insights.
• Contains New Zealand-specific resources and contacts.

You are buying a zipped file containing eBook editions of this 154 page book in ePub and Mobi formats. (Print 2001, eBooks 2013)

ISBNs:
ePub 9781927260036
Mobi 9780958268264.

Description

Aging is a journey we all share – but how we travel it makes all the difference.

In Growing in Age, Anne Millar draws on a lifetime of professional and personal experience to encourage a fresh, positive perspective on later life.

As a nurse, counsellor, and ordained Methodist minister, Anne walked alongside countless older adults and their families, helping them face both the joys and the challenges of aging.

This comprehensive guide explores society’s attitudes toward older people, the myths that persist, and the realities we must face.

It examines how relationships change with retirement, loss of a spouse, separation, or remarriage, and how these shifts affect emotional and spiritual health.

With practical advice for dealing with grief, depression, dementia, and end-of-life decisions, it offers compassionate support for those navigating difficult seasons.

Anne also addresses the needs of carers – whether family members, professionals, or volunteers – sharing tools to reduce stress and prevent burnout.

She encourages readers to see older adults not as a burden, but as vital contributors to family, community, and global wellbeing.

From nurturing spiritual growth to safeguarding dignity in care, Growing in Age is both an informative manual and a source of inspiration.

 It invites readers to celebrate the richness of later years while preparing wisely for the road ahead.

Praise for Growing in Age

“Anne Millar is widely valued for her thoughtful approach to older people and those who care for them. This book gathers insights from her long experience and reflects on them in ways easy to consider. I warmly commend it as absorbing reading. As one ‘growing in age’ I learnt a lot. “

Dame Phyllis Guthardt, Chancellor University of Canterbury, NZ

About the Author

Anne Millar trained as a nurse and, alongside her physiotherapist husband Jim, served in medical mission work in India with the Salvation Army.

Back in New Zealand, she worked as a marriage guidance counsellor and nurse in Dunedin and Gisborne, later managing residential care homes and pioneering community services for older people in Christchurch.

She went on to work as a counsellor and group facilitator for Presbyterian Support.

A mother, grandmother, and ordained Methodist minister, Anne held two theological qualifications and was widely respected for her thoughtful, practical approach to aging.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Preface
• Introduction

1 — Our Ageing Society

• Ageism
• The Ageing Population
• Myths and Realities
• Chronology
• Ill Health
• Mental Deterioration
• Inflexible Personality
• Withdrawal and Disengagement
• Asexuality
• The Effects of Social Policy
• The Feminisation of Ageing

2 — The Journey of Ageing

• Developmental Tasks
• Reminiscence and Life Review
• Lifelong Learning
• Health and Well-being
• Spirituality

3 — Relationships

• Retirement
• Expectations and Implications
• Relationships in Retirement
• Retirement Villages
• Marriage
• Illness and Caring for a Partner
• Separation and Divorce
• Remarriage
• Alternative Arrangements
• Immigrants
• Single Women
• Single Men
• Gay and Lesbian Relationships
• Sexuality
• Grandparenting

4 — Changes and Challenges

• Loss and Grief
• Complicated Grieving
• Death of a Loved One
• Living Alone
• Men and Bereavement
• Depression
• Dementia
• Alzheimer’s Disease
• Multi-Infarct or Vascular Dementia
• Other Dementias
• The Person and Their Caregivers
• Spiritual Needs
• The Last Days of Living
• Rights and Choices
• Responses to Dying
• Family Involvement

5 — Careful Caring

• Caring in the Family
• Supporting Parents in Their Home
• Sharing Living Arrangements
• Residential/Hospital Care
• Carer Stress
• Spirituality in the Caregiving Role
• Residential Care
• Quality of Life
• Elder Abuse
• The Family Context
• Institutional Abuse

6 — A Legacy for Future Generations

• Role Models and Mentors
• Story Tellers
• A Global Contribution

Conclusion

Bibliography

Organisations to Contact in New Zealand

Index