Medication management in older adults: A concise guidefor cliniciansS. Koch, M.F. Gloth and R. Nay (eds). Springer Science + BusinessMedia, New York, 2010. 140 pp. ISBN 978-1-60327-456-2 (softcover). A$65.95.

In this book, the authors have comprehensively outlinedcurrent issues related to medication management in olderpeople. Medication Management in Older Adults: A conciseguide for clinicians is presented as a series of edited chapterscovering topics such as polypharmacy, medication errors,electronic records and pharmacokinetics. It is a suitable andrelevant resource not only for health-care professionals butalso for students and carers.

The book is an inclusive analysis of contemporary issuesrelating to medication management. The statistics werehelpful to elucidate the scope of the problem, though thereare concerns with some of the old references, providingfurther evidence of the lack of rigorous research and advice inthis area. An issue that commonly occurs in edited books isrepetition between chapters. An example of this was theappearance of the same two tables on medication errors ingeneral practice on page 3 and again on pages 82–83. Editedbooks frequently risk being repetitive, due to a wide varietyof authors writing within such a narrow scope.

A dominant theme in the book is medication errors. Poorcommunication, inadequate assessment, polypharmacy andpolicy deficits consistently contribute to the significance ofmedication errors across the health-care system. The currentrelevance of this topic is highlighted in work being under-taken internationally and nationally through the Departmentof Health and Ageing and the Australian Commission onSafety and Quality in Health. Projects to address these issuesinclude redeveloping guidelines for medication managementin residential aged care, developing a national medicationchart for the aged care sector, implementing electronic medi-cation systems, and the High5’s project to improve medica-tion reconciliation in health care. Medication management isclearly a substantial and significant area of concern for healthprofessionals involved in the care of older people.

A key strength of this book is the presentation of ideas for theimplementation and improvement of medication manage-ment. These ideas were consistently well thought through,practical and evidence based. The book’s editors and themajority of the chapter authors are well-renowned expertsin gerontology and draw together fundamental principlesas well as offering well-grounded concepts and challenges inthis field. Expert authors include: Professors Rhonda Nay,Hal Kendig, David LeCouteur, Andrew McLachlan, MichaelMurray and Iqbal Ramzan.

This book offers a short and concise resource, utilising apractical and well-considered format that is supported by anevidence-based methodology.

Nicole J BrookeThe Whiddon Group, Sydney, New South Wales; andUniversity of Tasmania, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia

Older people, ageing and social work: Knowledgefor practiceM. Hughes and K. Heycox. Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, 2010. 336pp. ISBN 978-1-74237-060-6 (soft cover). A$49.99. Available fromhttp://www.allenandunwin.com

In a foreword to this publication, Mark Lymbery (Universityof Nottingham) states ‘there is evidence that social work witholder people is one of the least popular areas of practice,leading to the reality that many potentially skilled socialworkers prefer to establish their skills in work in other serviceuser groups’. With this book Hughes and Heycox make asignificant contribution to dispelling the suggestion thatsocial work in with older people has low status, is unfulfillingand lacks scope for creativity.

In their opening chapter, the authors establish a clear ratio-nale for their book. Drawing on their wide experience insocial work, they set the scene for following chapters toprovide a challenging approach for practitioners and othersengaged in the field. By structuring each chapter through aframework of Critical Reflection, Practice Examples andReflective Questions, Hughes and Heycox have made thisbook both a practical treatise and a major contributiontowards deconstructing the many myths associated withageing.

The method adopted and developed by the authors is basedon the Freirean theory of Praxis: that is, the need for reflec-tion to inform meaningful action. The authors have main-tained a clear and practical focus on this theory throughoutthe book. Although concerned primarily with the Australiansituation, the scope and depth of observation and researchmakes the book relevant to the wider internationalcommunity.

The authors outline the main theoretical perspectives onageing and underline the importance to social work practiceof theoretical backgrounds emerging from Critical Gerontol-ogy. They do much to demolish ageism, stereotypical views ofageing, alarmist predictions that the ageing trend will causean economic crisis (‘the demographic time bomb’), and otheroppressive aspects of the ageing process which have detractedfrom a positive view of social work in that area.

Detailing the complexity of social work, the authors examinethe ethical and legal aspects of care, the stress of case man-agement, and the tensions and burdens of social work gener-ally. They point out that the profession itself is not abovereproach; for example, when discussing social workers andageism and negative attitudes generally, they state, ‘Even thelanguage of professionals when referring to older people

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reflects this arguably negative and paternalistic attitude’(p. 93).

In general, the book treats older people as a cohort and,although acknowledging diversity within the older popula-tion, the authors argue that ‘There is also an increasingquestioning within the field of gender studies of the rigidseparation of gender into male and female’ (p. 105). This maybe, but the needs of older men and older women differ inmany respects and there is little guidance for the socialworker on how to deal with these differences. Gender differ-ences may become less rigid in later generations, but cur-rently social workers still need a sensitive understanding ofthe complexity of the gender divide.

Overall, while this book takes a comprehensive view of theageing process and confronts both problems and possibilitiesfor the social worker, it emphasises the needs and hazards ofageing rather than the opportunities. Although counteringthis argument in their penultimate paragraph, ‘MeaningfulAgeing’, this title could be contrasted with the term PositiveAgeing, which emphasises the role of older adults as activeparticipants in, as opposed to passive recipients of, the effortsof the social worker.

The authors acknowledge that this book ‘while not anexhaustive examination, has covered a broad range ofknowledge relevant to social work with older people’ (p.294). However, they appear to have overlooked the effects ofeducation and the contribution it can make to the quality oflife in later years. Learning can be as much a joy for olderpeople as for younger ones. Education in later life offersconsiderable potential for the social worker to enhance theageing process.

These observations do not lessen the achievement of theauthors in realising their aim ‘to make accessible to socialworkers core knowledge, with accompanying practiceimplications for work with older people and ageing’. Theirconcerns, that ‘professionals, managers and academics donot appreciate the complexity and potential of social workpractice with older people’ (p. xi), have been addressedwith scholarly and well-developed arguments, and sup-ported by significant research and references. Practitionersand others engaged in the general field of social work witholder people will find this book insightful and rewarding.

Allan MartinAuckland University, Auckland, New Zealand

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