BOOK REVIEWS

Research Highlights in Social Work 29. DevelopingServices for Older People and Their Families, Edited byROSEMARY BLAND.

In the Research Highlights series this book is really atextbook or position statement. Part I contains a chapteron ageism suggesting that working in partnership witholder people may help to stem the systematic voices ofdehumanization and patronizing attitudes. There is achapter on demography where Tony Warnes refreshinglyreminds us that statistics are as easily manipulated as theelderly. He says the health care demands of the elderlyper se have been relatively restrained in comparison toother age groups and that politics in the form of thechanges in residential care and community healthservices and the specialization of hospitals as acuteservices with loss of continuing, nursing and palliativecare have put far more strain on resources and manage-ment than the modest changes in the number of olderpeople. There are further solid chapters on the economicdisadvantages of being over 75 and describing why thelemming-style rush to community care has been politic-ally motivated through the EU.

There is little, however, in these research highlightsthat encourages us to think that we are healing theelderly. For example, Julie Curran's review of day carefor patients with dementia underlines the fact that whilethere is no evidence they help patients, carers desperatelywant them, and respite care likewise. The chapter in the

`does he take sugar' veinÐ`I was given options notchoices'Ðwhile politically correct did cause one to bemindful that the elderly are not the only ones who do notget exactly what they want in our society. Of course, bysuggesting that, one risks being branded a heretic butone must not become ridiculous in one's attempt tofoster individuality and on several occasions I felt that®ne divide was crossed. Having said that, the chapter onhousing was a timely reminder of how undigni®ed lifecan be when one is no longer able to `choose' one'sdwellingÐagain the development of innovative schemescan keep people at home, but what if the residentialcare options were real options, were really a�ordable,digni®ed, private places, would we still want to stay athome with the army of strangers attending to us?The ®nal section urges us: to be patient with the care

management process (I draw a veil over that); thatspecialist social work teams for the elderly are incontro-vertibly a good thing; and ®nally reprises the empower-ment and anti-ageist arguments which are always usefulto reread.Overall, though I found little novel in this book, it was

interesting and one or two points were well made. It wasmore a review of the status quo than research high-lights, but certainly would have a place in the socialwork library and as a basis for student seminars.

DAVID WILKINSON

Western Community HospitalSouthampton

# 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY, VOL. 12: 1046±1047 (1997)

Vascular Dementia: Current Concepts. Edited byI. PROHOVNIK, J. WADE, S. KNEZEVIC, T. TATEMICHI

and T. ERKINJUNTTI. Wiley, Chichester, 1996. No. ofpages: 399.

This textbook gives an up-to-date view of all presenta-tions of vascular dementia and the content of the book,as the title implies, is entirely devoted to the subject. Thecontributors are current experts in this ®eld from centresaround the world including the USA, UK, Canada,Israel, Japan, Germany, Switzerland and Finland. Thebook is well organized in that the chapters ¯ow logically,progressing from the historical development of thediagnosis and criticisms of current diagnostic criteriato epidemiology, neuropathology, white matter disease,neuropsychology, neuroimaging, hypoperfusion and®nally treatment. The chapter on structural imaging

using MRI is exceptional and gives many ®ne-qualityillustrations of the great variety of abnormalities that canbe seen. These even include perivascular spaces ifmatched proton density and T2 sequences are used inthe image acquisition.The frank discussions of the problems with de®nition,

not least because of the di�erent types of vasculardementia, will be of interest to all those working in the®eld of dementia. Most of the content of the book hasclinical application and is therefore of interest toclinicians and researchers alike. Because cerebrovasculardisease is such a wide ®eld, this book will be enlighteningeven for those with a specialist knowledge of the subject.

STEVE SIMPSON

Manchester Royal In®rmaryManchester