Caring for Elderly Parents

This book is an excellent resource. I am dealing with a parent who is declining rapidly. She is still independent - but barely. This book provided detailed information on what to expect,and not just in terms of the parent herself. This book dealt with how relationships with partners, children, siblings, and siblings' spouses impact care of an elderly parent. Many books point out that these relationships are changed by an elderlly parent who needs care, but this book provided tips and techniques for dealing with a wide variety of reactions. The book also dealt with the way in which childhood relationships with the parent can impact caregiving, and it provided strategies for dealing with the repercussions of a variety of positive and negatigve childhood experiences. My parent will probably not be very receptive to our efforts to provide care. She will insist she is still capable of doing everything herself, and she may demand her full independence, even when it becomes obvious to everyone else that she simply cannot cope by herself. This book presents real, concrete ways of dealing with this kind of resistance. It helps the caregiver understand the situation from the parent's point of view and approach problems in a way that make a parent more likely to be receptive. This book is more focused on how the caregiver can react to circumstances than on the circumstances themself. For example, this is not a guide to how to bathe a frail person, but it provides excellent strategies to cope with the effects of having to give the bath on the frail parent, the caregiver, and on other members of the household and the extended family. I have found many books that provide technical details of how to give the bath, but this is the only book I have read that addresses the emotional aspects of a parent who can no longer bathe herself. As a peson who will beccome a caregiver in the near future, I am fairly confidant in my ability to swoop in and take over the practical aspects of my parent's care, but I am aprehensive when I think about how to relate to her - what to say and how to say it. This book addresses that question and provides solutions that seem like they will really work. I plan to encourage my siblings (both close by and on the other side of the country) to read this book, and I encourage you to as well.