The Spiritual Dimension of Ageing

Author(s): Elizabeth MacKinlay

Ageing Well

What gives a frail and isolated or institutionalised older person their sense of wholeness and self? What makes later life meaningful? This clear and practical text presents much-needed guidance for health and social care practitioners, as well as for religious professionals, seeking to identify and meet the spiritual needs of older people in their caring role. Drawing on in-depth interviews with older people, Elizabeth MacKinlay, an experienced nurse and chaplain, develops an understanding of spirituality that enables the reader to explore the spiritual dimension of ageing and to learn how it contributes to well being and health in later life. This accessible and inspiring book will be a useful text for students, trainers and academics, policy makers and practitioners in health and social care, as well as religious professionals, in hospital, residential and other caring settings.


Product Information

Elizabeth MacKinlay is Senior Lecturer at the School of Nursing, University of Canberra. She is inaugural director of the Centre for Ageing and Pastoral Studies, and having worked as university chaplain as well as nurse, she is now also an honorary priest of the Anglican church of the Good Shepherd, Curtin, ACT.

1. An ageing society and the spiritual dimension. 2. Examining spirituality and ageing. 3. Religion, faith and spirituality. 4. Meaning in life: Spiritual development in ageing. 5. Types of ultimate meaning and images of God. 6. Religious responses to ultimate meaning in life. 7. Response to meaning through experience. 8. The spiritual journey in ageing. 9. Perceptions of self-sufficiency and vulnerability in ageing. 10. Wisdom and the move from provisional to final meanings. 11. Hope, fear and despair and the last career. 12. Humour, laughter, spirituality and ageing. 13. Spirituality, relationship and issues of isolation in ageing. 14. A picture of spirituality and ageing. 15. The spiritual dimension of ageing: Challenges and preparations for ageing, Bibliographical references. Index.

General Fields

  • : 9781843100089
  • : Jessica Kingsley Publishers
  • : Jessica Kingsley Publishers
  • : June 2001
  • : United Kingdom
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Elizabeth MacKinlay
  • : Paperback
  • : 362.6
  • : 304
  • : illustrations