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Australasian Journal on Ageing, Vol 27 No 1 March 2008, 51–54© 2008 The Authors

Journal compilation © 2008 ACOTA

Long-term care assisting: Aged care and disability

Scott K., Webb M., Sorrentino S. & Gorek B. (eds), 2007. MosbyElsevier, Sydney. ISBN: 0729537773. $A63.59.

This edition of

Long-term care assisting: Aged care and disability

is primarily written for students in Australia and New Zealandpreparing to function as care assistants in a variety of agedcared and disability settings both within the community and inresidential care. This book is a very useful addition to existingtextbooks on the subject because it recognises that many ofthose who are cared for in long-term care setting have disabilities.The relevant issues are discussed throughout the text.

Many of the existing chapters have been expanded within thisedition to suit the Australasian context. The first three chaptershave been redeveloped to present a view of aged care anddisability services in the Australian and New Zealand health-care systems. The book has also been considerably expandedwith the addition of new chapters on: ‘Communicating withthe resident or client’ (Chapter 5); ‘Manual handling’ (Chapter11); ‘Assisted and independent living’ (Chapter 20); ‘Self-administration of medications’ (Chapter 21); ‘Maintainingskin integrity and wound care management’ (Chapter 22);‘Complementary therapies’ (Chapter 26) and ‘Congenitaland acquired developmental disabilities’ (Chapter 28).

The 32 chapters are divided into five sections: Section 1 (Chapters1–4) is ‘Working in the long term care environment’; Section

2 (Chapters 5–8) is ‘Focusing on the client’; Section 3(Chapters 9–11) is ‘Protecting the person’; Section 4 (Chapters12–21) is ‘Assisting with activities of daily living’ and, finally,Section 5 (Chapters 22–32) is ‘Assisting with care need’.

In my opinion, the organisation of the chapters into sectionsis the main weakness of the book. Some of the chapters showlittle relationship with the section under which they havebeen included. For example two of the chapters in Section 5(Chapter 25 ‘Mental health problems’ and Chapter 28‘Congenital and acquired developmental disabilities’) could bebetter placed in the client-focused Section 2.

The book has many features and design elements that make itan excellent resource for students who will work in aged caresettings. Such features include the key terms with definitionsat the beginning of each chapter, and boxes and tables tolist principles, rules, signs and symptoms, and procedures.There also are boxes throughout the text that focus on issuesof special importance that transcend all chapter topics. Theseissues include: quality of life, residents with dementia, caringabout culture and community care. Finally, the learningobjectives, review questions and case studies that accompanyeach chapter are very effective learning aids for studentaged care assistants.

Karen TeshuvaLa Trobe University

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