How to Care for Aging Parents

Description

How do you find a nursing home? How can you pay for it? Do you need 24-hour assistance or just part-time help? Are you eligible for any financial help from the government? How do you reverse roles and become your parent's "parent"? Virginia Morris, a health-care journalist who cared for her own father through a terminal illness, has taken a tough subject and turned it into a smart, compassionate, timely book for every child with aging parents. It's all here-the emotional, medical, financial, and legal issues. She covers what is normal in old age and what is not. She shows how to redefine your relationship with your parent, leaven it with humor, and temper it with reduced expectations. How to make a parent's world easier to see, easier to hear, easier to get around in. What to expect of a parent with Alzheimer's, and what to do about it. How to provide home care-everything from putting together an easy-to-dress wardrobe to installing grab bars and reflective tape. And how to get professional help.

"A must-read [Morris] thoroughly addresses the subject, covering most topics imaginable from standards such as exercise and healthy diet to uncomfortable ones such as STDs, Alzheimer's, and delusions and hallucinations. Her frank approach manages to be both compassionate and direct making the most awkward or devastating topics manageable." Publishers Weekly, starred review" "This guide, aimed at the "Sandwich Generation," provides a road map to assist adult children in caring for their aging parents. Combining personal experience with expertise in healthcare and social and political issues, Morris has produced a thoroughly researched, well-organized, and comprehensive manual. Chapters follow in logical progression, yet they can stand alone and be read on an "as-needed" basis. The topics covered include the concrete, practical areas such as home care, finances, nursing homes/hospitals, legal issues, and medical/safety concerns as well as the psychosocial areas of handling emotions, dealing with death and dying, sibling conflicts, and spiritual needs. In her discussions, Morris adds useful details such as a suggested list of things to pack for the hospital. Support for the caregiver as well as to the elderly person is covered. Sprinkled throughout the text are agencies, phone numbers, and other reference information." Indispensable! AARP" "A compassionate guide of encyclopedic proportion." The Washington Post "