Holistic Approaches to Healthy Aging and Programs for the Elderly

The holistic approach to health is an important antidote to the perspective and the illness-oriented treatment it dictates. Rooted in a deep appreciation of the unity of mind and body, it emphasizes preventive education, health promotion, and the realization that growth, exercise, self-responsibility, and meaningful interpersonal involvement are necessary ingredients in the healthy lifestyle. This chapter aims to present sketches-and the addresses-of a variety of programs for the elderly that successfully model a multidimensional and holistic approach to physical and psychological health care. Aging in the United States has begun to take on new shapes and meanings as our society quite literally “grows up.” We are shifting gradually from being a culture of young people to being one in which the fastest growing segment of the population is elderly. Historically, images about aging and attitudes toward the elderly have emerged and developed through direct personal experience with elders.