The Ends of Time: Life and Work in a Nursing Home

(Paperback)

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A lively account of life in a decent American nursing home, this book offers an in-depth look at American geriatric facilities. Using six years of anthropological research, Joel Savishinsky analyzes the lives and experiences of residents, staff members, and volunteers. He addresses the contradictory attitudes American society has shown towards geriatric facilities and the aging process itself: the tensions between caring and curing, morality and mortality, privacy and supervision, home and institution, and selfishness and altruism. Savishinsky portrays the strengths and weaknesses of the nursing home in a humanistic way, emphasizing how the nursing home affects the individuals who live and work there. He also discusses inventive recreation programs, such as pet therapy, suggesting they can alleviate loneliness and provide meaningful opportunities for residents. Savishinsky challenges the stereotypic view of aging and institutional life, concluding that not all nursing homes are warehouses for the dying; he offers several recommendations for improving the quality of life and work in geriatric institutions. This book is presented in nontechnical language and is valuable to the general reader as well as to professionals in health, social science, social work, and gerontology.

Reviews

"The Ends of Time. . . marks a turning point in the ethnographic study of older people who have moved beyond the traditional context of family and community. . . . [The book] is a rich contribution to the ethnographic literature on aging. . . [and it] captures the full range of emotions on display in the nursing home and conveys them in a context that is fully articulated within the institution's culturally modified spatial and temporal dimensions."- Maria D. Vesperi, Ph.D. University of South Florida
"This is a unique book. It blends an insightful study of an innovative pet therapy program with what may be the best available ethnography of a nursing home environment. It should find wide use in classrooms and on the bookshelves of anyone who works with or cares about the elderly."-Jay Sokolovsky Professor of Anthropology Director, Center for International Policy Analysis and Research
The Ends of Time has appeal for a diverse audience. The readable quality of the book makes the information about nursing home life understandable to people who have limited knowledge about this subject. However, the depth in which the author presents his material provides a fresh perspective on nursing home life that will provide insight to those practitioners who are intimately acquainted with institutional care. Excerpts about various topics would make excellent case examples to facilitate discussions about living and working in a nursing home setting for training or educational sessions.-Journal of Gerontological Social Work
The Ends of Time is an impressive, engaging, and scholarly work that makes a valuable contribution to the anthropology of aging. His grasp of the moral dimension of everyday realities, not only for institutionalized elderly but for those who care for and visit them, lends strength to the presentation and distinguishes this ethnography as one of exceptional depth and substance.-Medical Anthropology Quarterly
"The Ends of Time is an impressive, engaging, and scholarly work that makes a valuable contribution to the anthropology of aging. His grasp of the moral dimension of everyday realities, not only for institutionalized elderly but for those who care for and visit them, lends strength to the presentation and distinguishes this ethnography as one of exceptional depth and substance."-Medical Anthropology Quarterly
"The Ends of Time has appeal for a diverse audience. The readable quality of the book makes the information about nursing home life understandable to people who have limited knowledge about this subject. However, the depth in which the author presents his material provides a fresh perspective on nursing home life that will provide insight to those practitioners who are intimately acquainted with institutional care. Excerpts about various topics would make excellent case examples to facilitate discussions about living and working in a nursing home setting for training or educational sessions."-Journal of Gerontological Social Work

Author Bio

JOEL S. SAVISHINSKY is Professor of Anthropology at Ithaca College. He is author of The Trail of the Hare: Life and Stress in an Arctic Community and co-editor of Deviance: Anthropological Perspectives (Bergin & Garvey, 1991). He has written numerous articles on pet therapy, Alzheimer's disease, voluntarism, and institutional responses to death and moral dilemmas.