Customer Reviews

Circles of Care: How to Set Up Quality Care for Our Elders in the Comfort of Their Own Homes

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Circles of Care combines practical advice told through past experience that I can relate to with meaningful concepts of what caring is and how it can strengthen and deepen our lives. This combination elevates caring for a frail old person, and even being old oneself, from a stressful, "want to be avoided" crisis. Instead Ann Cason brings to the challenges of eldercare, based on her own extensive experience, a new view oriented to the reality of the relationships and needs that we have. She explains how caring for a loved one is an opportunity for personal growth. While showing what caring can be, she acknowledges all the frustrations, and difficulties it can create. Through very specific and realistic advice, based on the activities and routines that make us feel alive, no matter our age, she has shown me how to make up a plan of care for my parents. If you are a caregiver or have a loved one who is a frail elder and don't know what to do, are stressed out, or want to prepare for your own care, Circles of Care is what you need to read!

Ann Cason's book, Circles of Care, is a guide to the terrain of aging. It is filled with insight, wit, practicality, and wisdom. From the assessing of an elder's needs, through the nuts and bolts of daily care, to end-of-life issues, Cason draws on her years of experience in the field to provide helpful guidelines for caregivers.

Sprinkled throughout the book are "care studies," personal stories that illustrate the complexities and richness of aging and of caring for the elderly.

Cason covers many of the more common difficult behaviors such as confusion, memory loss, moodiness, and combativeness. She provides ways of working with such issues skilfully and with sensitivity.

There is not even a whiff of condecension in her discussion of the elderly. In fact, there is the greatest respect for what the elderly have to each us. I highly recommend this book.

This is a practical book, dealing with all aspects of caring for elders, from emotional nuances to financial realities. Although my parents died over a decade ago and the time when I will need care is hopefully more than a decade in the future, I found it a very absorbing read. The wisdom, warmth, and humor which the author brings to the subject of eldercare is really universal. She has seen so much and has so many wonderful stories to tell.

The book did enrich my sense of what may lie ahead. But more than that, from the authors wisdom about caring for elders I learned many lessons about caring for others, whether they are old or young.

So I recommend this book not just if you who are faced with caring for elders or are wondering how you will be cared for, but for anyone concerned about how we treat each other in this society.

"Circles of Care" is one of a slowly-but-surely growing number of books exploring the blessings of honoring one's aged loved ones by providing in-home care. Reeve Lindbergh has considerable practical experience in this field, and this experience shows. The book is practical because it issues forth from the hands-on; the book is honest because it does not gloss over the rough aspects of caring for an aged loved one in the home. Reeve Lindbergh's "warts and all" approach to this subject matter is a high part of the book's appeal and value.

I fear that many readers, including Christians, will skim such a book out of curiousity and then dismiss it with a rueful, "Well, it's a good idea, but I could never do it." Read the book carefully, and think through the implications (and the subtle, implicit warnings) before deciding that caring for your own loved one is "un-do-able."

Anyone who is facing decisions about how to care and provide for an aged loved one would benefit from reading this book.

I can't say enough about this books impact on my life and family. Ann Cason, brings to light all the necessary ingredients to help you navigate through the rough waters of a senior declining and how to care for their ever increasing needs. Just this month my sister-in-law was called to help her uncle in the Midwest after a long hospital stay. She had no idea what she would be facing so I gave her Circles of Care to read on the Plane ride. She was so grateful because when she arrived she had a plan of action as well as a list of priorities to address in her short stay. In addition I am so grateful to have read this book which gave me support and ideas how to handle my own mother's issues of memory loss and emotional volatility. Thank you Ann!!