Caring For Elderly Parents [Paperback]

Ruth Whybrow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1996

This guide to the emotional challenges that arise for family members, whether they live near of far from the parent, is wise and comforting. While it offers practical advice without resorting to cliches, its most unique feature is that it deals in a helpful way with the feelings that adult children will encounter.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Elder Law: A Legal and Financial Guide for Caregivers and Seniors by Peter J. Strauss and Nancy M. Lederman addresses the particular needs of the fastest-growing segment of the population. As they age, seniors "face the possibility of reduced spending power, rising health care and insurance costs, loss of health benefits both on the job and in retirement, pensions in jeopardy, and changing house needs." This new area of law has evolved to handle the legal and management problems that may result from aging, illness or incapacity. (Facts on File, $14.95 ISBN 0-8160-3410-9; cloth $25.95 -3082-0; Sept.)
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: Crossroad (August 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0824515587
• ISBN-13: 978-0824515584
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,415,156 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best guide I've found, April 19, 2006

By 

Cathy (Pennsylvania, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Caring For Elderly Parents (Paperback)

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.