Multidisciplinary Coordinated Caregiving, 2014
Research • Practice • Policy
Caregiving: Research • Practice • Policy Series

Effective, meaningful caregiving requires a well-coordinated and informed effort guided by various highly skilled specialists across several interrelated professions, including psychologists, social workers, and occupational therapists. Multidisciplinary Coordinated Caregiving addresses the information needs of these interrelated professionals, contributing to the direct care of individuals and serving as an essential resource for those who ultimately create collaborative approaches to contemporary caregiving plans. In addition, the volume provides a wealth of evidence-based research findings to facilitate ongoing dialogue about multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives on and interventions for the complex challenge of caregiving in America.

Key areas of coverage include:

• The status of professional caregiving in the United States.
• Nursing perspectives on the state of family caregiving.
• Psychological aspects of caregiving.
• A human development, lifespan perspective on caregiving during late life.
• Public health contributions to caregiving.

Multidisciplinary Coordinated Caregiving offers a wealth of insights for those researchers, practitioners, and graduate students who seek to optimize the care of individuals across such fields as psychology, social work, public health, geriatrics and gerontology, and medicine as well as public and educational policy making.

Introduction.- Chapter 1. The Status of Professional Caregiving in America; Shirley S. Travis & Ronda C. Talley.- Section I: Discipline-specific Professional Caregiving.- Chapter 2. The State of Family Caregiving: A Nursing Perspective; Katherine Morton Robinson.- Chapter 3. Professional Gerontology and Caregiving; Miae Chun, & Lewina Lee, & Bob G. Knight.- Chapter 4. Social Work, Paraprofessional, and Family Care Provider Challenges: Crisis in Care; Nancy R. Hooyman.- Chapter 5. Psychological Aspects of Caregiving; Laura M. Arnstein & Ronald T. Brown.- Chapter 6. Occupational Therapy Perspectives of Caregiving; Janet L. Valluzzi.- Chapter 7. Education: A Model of Schools as Caregiving Communities.; Leigh S. Baldwin.- Section II: Disciplinary Contributions to Caregiving.- Chapter 8. Health Communication and Caregiving Research, Policy, and Practice; Lisa Sparks.- Chapter 9. An Anthropology of Caregiving; Frances K. Barg, Shimrit Keddem, & Wendy Shiekman.- Chapter 10. Caregiving in Late Life: A Life-Span Human Development Perspective; Karen A. Roberto & Shannon Jarrott.- Chapter 11. Contributions of Public Health to Caregiving; Ronda C. Talley, John E. Crews, Donald Lollar, Diane Elmore, Martha R. Crowther, & Janet Valluzzi.- Chapter 12. Public Policy and Caregiving; Nora Super.- Conclusions.- Chapter 13. Professional Caregiving: Working Together to Provide Quality, Comprehensive, Coordinated Care – A Call to Action; Ronda C. Talley & Shirley S. Travis.

Ronda C. Talley, PhD, MPH, is Professor of Psychology at Western Kentucky University.  Dr. Talley’s professional experience includes providing national leadership on caregiving issues and organizational development as Executive Director of the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving and the National Quality Caregiving Coalition; working with federal government groups to promote caregiving issues as Associate Director of Legislation, Policy, and Planning/Health Scientist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in Atlanta, GA; and promoting the science and practice of psychology in the schools as Associate Executive Director of Education and Director of School Policy and Practice at the American Psychological Association in Washington, DC. Dr. Talley taught ethics and legal issues in school psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park, and clinical, counseling, and school psychology students at Spalding University in Louisville, KY. Prior to that time, Dr. Talley worked a teacher of students with special needs and school administrator for almost 20 years in the Jefferson County (KY) Public Schools where she supervised a multi-disciplinary private practice.

Dr. Talley received the Outstanding Alumni Award from Indiana University and the Jack Bardon Distinguished Service Award from the Division of School Psychology of the American Psychological Association. She serves on the national board of the American Association of Caregiving Youth, the Indiana University School of Education Board of Visitors, and the Western Kentucky University National Alumni Advisory Board. Dr. Talley is Editor-in-Chief of the Springer Caregiving book series on diverse caregiving issues. 

Shirley S. Travis,PhD, RN, FAAN, is a Past President of the National Gerontological Nursing Association and a former Chair of the Clinical Medicine Section (now HealthSciences Section)/Vi