A global view of the complex relationship between health, care and ageing is provided in this refreshing approach to significant issues of later life. The book challenges a number of key assumptions of policy and practice, such as stereotypes of older people as a burden and drain on resources and society. It also questions the narrow and negative focus on healthcare in contrast to promoting positive health and well-being. Underpinning the discussion are frameworks to help the reader critique the processes involved in health and social care policies and the dominant discourses that have pervaded our thinking of how to address health and social care needs of an older population. An ethics of care approach and an understanding of the lifecourse are central to the reframing of these issues.

This book captures the essence of the ‘Ageing and the Lifecourse’ series, based on critical gerontology and lifecourse perspectives. With renewed interest in mid and later life, the series ‘Ageing and the Lifecourse’ bridges the gaps in the literature as well as provides cutting-edge debate on new and traditional areas of ageing within a lifecourse perspective, while focusing on the social rather than the medical aspects of ageing. Such an approach will appeal to professionals as well as academics engaged in these debates at local, regional, national and global levels. It has considerable relevance to policy makers in health and social care, particularly at a time when, in many parts of the world, economic considerations are in the forefront of the debate on how to provide health and social care in ageing societies.