Last Years of Long Lives

<p><em>The Last Years of Long Lives</em> is a unique account of that period of old age which precedes death. Based on 400 complete individual histories and covering a twenty-year period, it looks at the experiences of people over eighty years old in three important areas: disability, family life and health care. Using the life-course approach to research, it reveals rich data about the contributions of formal and informal care and how life expectancy and experiences of disability interact with experiences of care.<br><br>The reader is invited to conceptualise these phenomena as processes in continuous time - processes that are sometimes long and complex, sometimes short and simple - and learns about the four types of disability career before death. At the same time, the author presents a three-stage model of informal care and examines the main patterns of formal service use.<br><br><em>The Last Years of Long Lives</em> presents a new way of looking at old age for students, researchers, practitioners and policy makers and gives a comprehensive picture of what has been called 'the fourth age'.</p> 1. Introduction 2. Larvick: Context and Case 3. Research Design, Data and Key Concepts 4. The Study Population: Basic Characteristics 5. Courses of Disability 6. Courses of Family Care 7. Courses of Formal Service Use 8. Looking Back and Summing Up